One of the measures announced by the Government in October 2024 had to do with The end of the annoying commercial calls and telephone scams. The Ministry of Digital and Public Transformation presented A comprehensive plan To combat fraud from SMS and calls, a package that will be approved before the end of February.
The norm will strictly prohibit commercial calls with numbers outside the prefixes 800 and 900. The problem? The Spaniards are dealing with another type of spam. One that has to do with the “human resources” departments.
A plan against commercial calls. The Ministry for Digital Transformation and Public Function announced, yesterday, Thursday, that the Ministerial Order to combat cybetheafas through false commercial calls will be approved before the end of February.
“That is, you will not be able to receive a commercial call from a mobile, that is happening today. We receive from a mobile, we think he is an acquaintance, a relative, we do not know who he is, and then it turns out that it is a commercial call. This will be prohibited by the ministerial order. ” Óscar López, Minister for Digital Transformation and Public Function.
Those companies that use numbers outside the prefixes 800 and 900 will face sanctions (still to be determined), and it will be possible to denounce before the Telecommunications User Attention Office to any number that breaches the new standard.
Beyond Spanish companies. Similarly, work to try Block calls International that are identified as nationals, as well as those from numbers not assigned to any service, operator or customer.
A database will also be launched in order to block text messages with alphanumeric characters (such as, when they send you fake Movistar SMS, mails, DHL, etc.). All messages that do not come from entities registered in the database will be blocked.
This last measure is key, and on its success it will depend that the Spaniards are calmer in
We call him of Indeed Human Resources. The problem of commercial calls is largely solved, pointing to The Robinson list. It is not infallible, but Organic Law 3/2018 on the protection of personal data prohibits companies from calling you for commercial purposes. Case apart, of course, they decide to skip the law.
What, at least in recent months, has not had a solution, is the issue of the so -called “human resources”. It is more than likely that in recent months you have received a call in which a robot invites you to add its number to WhatsApp to know “work conditions.”
The problem is so widespread that the own Incibe He published a statement warning about this fraud, recommended to users to block contact and report it as spam.
Something that makes us frown at these calls is that they are not made with suspicious numbers, not even Google’s antispam filter can with them. The reason? They use completely real national numbers. How is it possible?
ID SPOOFING. This technique is to modify or falsify the call identifier to match a “legitimate” number. It can be done from anywhere in the world so, although I call you a 6xx, the robot that is trying to cheat you does not have to be located in Spain.
In fact, the scam is so sophisticated that scammers can adapt their calls so that, even being in another country, you receive a call from a national number (the country you are traveling to) talking in Spanish to offer you great employment conditions.
Many of these scammers use voice services about IP (VOIP) to make these calls. This allows them to show a Caller ID (call identifier) from any country, regardless of where they are. And regarding why they have your number, you have nothing more to write on Google “Mass filtration Xataka data”. Have dozens of articles published last year.
The question is if it will be enough. The government has not yet detailed how it plans to fight against this type of calls. In the event that they are carried out from other countries, according to their promise, they should be able to intercept them.
But if the ID Spoofing is done locally, it will not be easy to detect when a 6xx “real” and a 6xx that is made by another.
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Image | Unspash (Lindsey Lamont)