The message has a high dose of credibility. A voice on the phone says it is calling from a well-known, transnational parcel delivery company and warns about the impossibility of delivering your order because no one received it.
If more than 70 percent of the population buys online during the holiday season, the probability of finding a buyer over the phone is high. And no one wants to miss the delivery of the product.
This loophole of fear is exploited by the telephone interlocutor, who offers the solution: he will send you a code via WhatsApp and as soon as you have it you must share it. The hook of the fraud is set and in the knowledge or caution of the probable victim lies the opportunity to deactivate it.
In other cases, the attempt is through email, where they send a link to recover the shipment of the product, in which they will request personal and banking information. Sharing them opened the door to scammers.
This year, at the Command, Control, Computing, Communications and Citizen Contact Center (C5) of Mexico City we have supported more than 3,600 people in situations of fraud, three-fifths of the mayors of Cuauhtémoc, Gustavo A. Madero and Iztapalapa.
The predisposition to happiness, meeting loved ones and an increase in personal and family spending levels typical of the holiday season can lead to the search for better offers and the risks of fraud or data theft.
Faced with these dynamics of scammers, it is necessary to activate a certain prevention logic based on distrust in the face of great offers, in the face of the voice that says it has a package to be delivered or the email with instructions to recover the shipment.
Fraud is one of the oldest and currently most widespread crimes on the continent. It exploits a feeling of invulnerability or the confidence of believing ourselves to be experienced and ready to not fall for the scam or be those innocent little pigeons who let themselves be fooled, as the tradition of April Fool’s Day says.
Prevention is key so that this date is only for joking and laughing, because as the Greek philosopher Anaxagoras said: “If you fool me once, it’s your fault; If you fool me two, it’s mine.”
Contact:
Salvador Guerrero Chiprés is General Coordinator of the Command, Control, Computing, Communications and Citizen Contact Center (C5) of Mexico City.
www.c5.cdmx.gob.mx
Twitter: @C5_CDMX
The opinions expressed are solely the responsibility of their authors and are completely independent of the position and editorial line of Forbes Mexico.
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