“Hello, mom. My phone has broken” like this or with some similar message begins the known as Son scam in trouble. This scam modality has been circulating for a long time and brought to the head authorities for its High effectiveness. The National Police has dismantled an organization that was dedicated to this scam and that it cheated large amounts of money. It has not been (nor will it) the only one.
32 detainees. The investigation began nine months ago and has resulted in 32 arrests in the province of Valencia, of which four acted as “mule” captors. Were . Thanks to these arrests, 63 complaints filed throughout the country have been resolved, whose total amount amounts to no less than 320,000 euros. In addition, the police have managed to block several fraudulent transfers and return to the victims more than 10,000 euros.
A recurring scam. Although it is a large operation, it is not the first organization that is disjointed that used this modality of fraud. A little over a year ago The Civil Guard arrested a hundred people that came to cheat 850,000 euros. In July of last year an operation was also carried out with 65 detainees who had scammed 410,000 euros. And there has been more. Just a few days ago A neighbor from A Coruña who cheated 5,000 euroshe denounced and thanks to this, those responsible were arrested.
Too effective. Scams that come by WhatsApp There are many, but few who get so many victims and figures so high. This modality of fraud is very effective, which makes it the most dangerous. According to the Civil Guardscammers study the victims, who have a child emancipated by studies or travel. The scammers create “an instant emotional connection after which they move the urgency with messages of despair, causing the parental protection reaction.”
We normally distrust when they write to us from unknown numbers, but in this case the pretext of having lost the main mobile is used, so the main doubt is resolved. If the scammers have chosen their victim well, it is very easy to create the story and end up sending a bizum to their supposed son or daughter.
The next level: AI. Although they are not the most common, there are cases in which Voices generated by AI have been used to cheat To the victims. It was the case of an American citizen who received a call in which he listened to his daughter to shout that they were going to harm him if he did not pay. The National Police He has warned about what they call ‘Voice Hacking’ and gave a trick to protect us: Use a family password. And how do they clon the voice? With tools like Vall-e only Three seconds are necessarysomething very easy to get social networks.
Protect yourself. Although the authorities are making efforts such as the operation that has taken place in Valencia, eradicating it completely seems quite complicated so the best is prevention. The first thing if you receive a message of this type is to try to write or call the original number to see if the person answers. You can also ask you to send you an audio, although it is much better to make a video call since you avoid a possible ‘voice hacking’. In short, if someone asks for money and also has a hurry, always distrust.
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