Sms Scam, They Can Steal All Your Money From Your Account: How It Works – pianetacellulare.it
A new scam is coming to smartphones and can steal up to 10 thousand euros from your account: how to avoid it
A new fraud plotted to extort money from the accounts of unsuspecting users has been exposed by the Codaconsthe well-known consumers’ association, which has revealed the modus operandi of these criminals who every day devise increasingly underhand and effective systems to steal other people’s money.
How the new scam is being perpetrated
The latest scam highlights just how through a normal SMS you can cause the loss of 10 thousand euros from your current account. In an official note, Codacons explained to consumers what behaviors and precautions to adopt to avoid falling into this diabolical trap. The action undertaken by scammers is well structured and for this reason has a high chance of being successful, also because consumers often act distractedly, underestimating real dangers.
This scam is perpetrated through a seemingly harmless or even potentially useful SMS, in which the user is informed of the presence of problems accessing the home banking or suspicious movements on the account. To find out more, the user is invited to click on a link that leads to the cloned site of the bank. At this point the unaware user types username, tax code, password, telephone number and email address to log in, not realizing that they had thus revealed some crucial data to the criminals who plotted this scam.
The scam in question is technically called “smishing”and has already claimed several victims in Italy, as reported some time ago by Codacons. The same consumer association has released the details of a case involving a user contacted by a fake operator posing as an employee of the bank, who attempted to use the account to make withdrawals and deposit money in a Swiss bank. Initially, the defrauded person had even received a bank transfer of 30 euros. Thinking he was dealing with a real bank operator, he provided his data and later discovered that 10 thousand euros had been stolen from his account.
Codacons’ advice
The victim then took action by contacting both the police and Codacons to try to recover the sum artfully diverted by the scammer. Codacons, to prevent other people from falling into the same trap, invited everyone to never divulge their personal data, nor the access codes of their bank accounts and to avoid keeping bank details or their credit card on your smartphone. Another thing to do is to check your bank accounts frequently to stay up to date on any suspicious activity.
