INCIBE recalls some guidelines to prevent a purchase from ending up as a scam and insists on the need to report them
Sales are the time of the year when the greatest number of purchases are concentrated over the Internet and with this the ingenuity of cybercriminals is sharpened to commit their scams, knowing that many people resort to these practices for the first time and may be scapegoats for their ignorance of the risk involved in transactions in online stores.
This has been warned, in statements to EFE, by the Cybersecurity Helpline technician of the National Cybersecurity Institute (Incibe), Ángela García Valds, who has specified that cybercriminals are adapting to the times and generally in times of crisis. sales tend to focus their scams on online stores with offers that are ultimately fraudulent.
García Valds has indicated that there is no data on how much cyber-scams grow in sales season, although he has stressed that “It is clear that the increase is very significant”, and he stressed that in these periods the Incibe receives more inquiries about this type of crime through various channels: 017, the form available on the entity’s website and through chats via WhatsApp or Telegram
In addition, it has warned that whoever has been the victim of an attack of this nature has provided their bank details to cybercriminals, for which reason it has insisted on the need to always report this type of action to the security forces and notify your entity what happened to prevent fraudulent use of your card.
“The most normal thing is for the bank to cancel the card from which the purchase was made, which turned out to be a cyber-scam to prevent cybercriminals from making more charges and prolonging the scam,” he pointed out. Likewise, he has continued, all evidence of fraud must be collected and a complaint filed with the security forces.
“Depending on the agreements that each user has with their bank, with this complaint there are some possibilities of recovering the lost money, which generally depends on the time elapsed since the victim realizes that they have been scammed,” the person in charge clarified. of the Incibe.
Guidelines to avoid scams
The Incibe technician has indicated that several “more or less technical” recommendations can be followed to avoid being a victim of an online scam, but she has stressed that “nothing better than applying common sense and avoiding offers that offer very low-priced brand products.” below the market price”.
“When they offer us products at incredible prices, it is most likely that we are dealing with fraud,” García Valds reiterated. Among the “technical” recommendations that should be followed “when investigating a web page” he highlighted those that have HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) at the addresswhich, in principle, indicates that it is a secure communication that is going to be encrypted, and also that they have trust seals.
He added that until a few years ago these two indicators guaranteed the legality of the page, but “now cybercriminals, in their continuous reinvention, are adapting to the times and currently fraudulent online stores have been detected that have them” .
Other guidelines to follow are to check that the URL corresponds to the original brand and that the name has not been modified, that theThe page has a legal notice informing of the rights of the users and questions of returns as well as data of the owner such as the CIF.
He has warned that a very common characteristic of fraudulent online stores is that they usually put all the products at the same price, as well as that the texts incur in incorrect language even with misspellings and whose images are of very low quality. Finally, he has invited to consult the opinions of other users as long as they are outside the web page in question.
According to the criteria of
Know more
