Call spoofing and call authentication technology

There has been a recent wave of call spoofing, a new scam. It is a type of virtual robbery that, according to reports from the National Police, has become one of the most frequent in our country.

In this article we analyze everything you need to know about the new scam that is causing many people to lose all the money they had in the bank. We’ll see how it occurs and how you can avoid it.

What is call spoofing or phone makeup?

The first thing is to clarify what we mean when we talk about call spoofing. This new scam in trend is about telephone spoofing by using false information in the identification of a call, with the sole purpose of hiding the real origin of the call.

Scammers are responsible for impersonating phone numbers so that the origin of the call seems to come from a certain location or organization, thus increasing the chances that the user will answer and end up falling for the scam.

It is the most common virtual theft or identity theft in our country, mainly in order to impersonate banks or couriers. In the first case, in order to get the access data to digital banking and make transfers of all the money in the account. In the second case, it is in order to obtain more personal data to resell them or get fictitious transport costs paid.

The scammer can impersonate any person or local entity that the user knows to achieve the scam. It is important to be alert to avoid this type of fraud.

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Call spoofing: the scam that is causing many to lose their money

Through this technique that we have analyzed throughout the article , numerous scams are being carried out with very important amounts in our country.

In fact, the National Police has registered numerous complaints throughout the national territory of this fraud, after the merger of Unicaja. The procedure is usually very similar: an operator calls users by call spoofing, and informs them that they have tried to access their digital banking on numerous occasions. In order to help the user, they need to provide them with the access data to digital banking to avoid blocking the account or with the intention of recovering the lost money.

Users out of fear and ignorance end up providing their access data to digital banking, and the operator informs them that they have solved the problem. After this, the scammers are responsible for accessing the user’s bank account and making transfers to foreign bank accounts. On many occasions they make transfers for the entire amount in the bank account, always being transfers of less than € 3,000 so as not to alert the authorities or the security filters of the banks.

How can we avoid call spoofing or being called by scammers?

To prevent fraudsters from deceiving us, it is necessary to have some notions of security and validation protocols. These tips are suitable to know how to act before this type of calls.

Turn on your mobile’s caller ID or spam filter technology

Nowadays almost all smartphones have caller ID technology, being an option that helps mitigate calls from this type of scammers. However, they are not infallible. Even if we have it activated, we should not trust ourselves. Scammers may have found a way to, at least for a period of time, appear to be legitimate calls.

In Pasiona we can help you in the cybersecurity section, so contact us.

Avoid online contests or sweepstakes

The online world is full of raffles and promotions in which “only” by entering the phone number we can participate to obtain prizes. These types of “events” are many of those responsible for capturing the phone numbers that scammers later call.

Never give out private data over the phone

It is important to be clear that no bank or business worth its salt will ask us for private personal data by phone. If we receive a call in which they pretend to be an entity or organization that requests our personal data, we must completely distrust and not provide any data.

Block numbers we’ve already detected as spam or scammers

Phones have the option to block a phone number. So, once we have detected that it is a fraudulent call, we can completely block that number so that it can never call us again.

Report unwanted or suspected fraud calls

The National Police has a specialized device to detect, warn and paralyze this type of fraud. If we have been victims of one of these crimes, we must report it as soon as possible to the competent authorities so that they can analyze the case and prevent others from being scammed as well.

Use common sense

In the event of any unexpected call, it is essential to have common sense and caution. If in doubt, It is best to hang up and inform ourselves well directly with the original source of the information. For example, if they call us from the Treasury or the Police for a fine or unexpected return and request information, it is best to go directly to the Treasury or the Police to confirm that it is something legitimate and not a scam.

Through call spoofing they have managed to steal hundreds of thousands of euros in a very short time in our country. That is why it is vital to have the help of cybersecurity experts to know how to avoid this type of trap. Although in many cases it is possible to recover the lost money, the reality is that it is a slow and tedious process. Therefore, it is best to always be alert to avoid falling into call spoofing.