Banco Santander, one of the largest financial institutions in Spain. issued a warning to its customers about a new type of scam it has discovered in a bid to stop criminals from getting their data and money people without even realizing it.
This is a type of cyber fraud that It is becoming increasingly fashionable among Internet scammers: “credit cancellation”. It all starts with a criminal posing as a bank and asking for personal information to cancel a supposed loan. They will then use this information to steal more personal information, passwords, and possibly even money from the customer.
How does “loan write-off fraud” work?
Banco Santander itself has made publicly available information free of charge to avoid this type of online fraud. According to the financial institution, cybercriminals typically follow these steps:
- Laughing attack. It all starts with an SMS message in which scammers pretend to be a bank and explain that there may be a security breach in your bank account.
- “Fake loan” scam. The criminals will tell the client that the loan was issued to him by mistake and that to cancel it, it is enough to make a money transfer, which is a complete lie. They will request personal information and security codes from the attacked person. in order to later be able to receive money and other assets from him.
- Dial code *21*. Cybercriminals often ask the victim to enter this code and then a phone number, thereby they manage to redirect calls that Banco Santander made to the client directly to themto further confirm banking transactions via a “voice bot”.
- The next step is to contact us via WhatsApp or phone. The scammers will contact the victim again using one of these methods to continue to extract information from them. This is when you are usually told a lie about a fake loan and are usually asked to make a transfer of the same amount to cancel it. In this way, they force the victim to send money directly to the cyber fraudster’s account..
How to avoid this kind of scam
Avoiding this type of online scam is not easy as the scammers are trained to manipulate their victims.often urging them to act as quickly as possible or threatening them with a fine from the bank. Banco Santander reminds its customers of the following information to prevent them from falling into the hands of cybercriminals:
- Do not trust any link received via SMS which invites you to log in to e-banking.
- SMS asking to enter a number starting with *21*This should never be done, as then call forwarding will be activated and it will be almost impossible for the financial institution to help the victim.
- Neither Banco Santander nor many other banking institutions will ever ask their customers. which provides them with an electronic signature and a full access code.
- The bank will never ask the client to cancel the loan.therefore, any message of this style is more than suspicious.
- Never access a bank’s website via SMS or WhatsApp link.Always do this from the official app or from the browser to make sure it is the official page.
- The bank never calls or sends urgent messages. or urgent, do not believe if you receive messages of this kind.
- Passwords and digital keys need to be changed from time to time.. If you receive a suspicious message, this should also be done immediately.
- Never provide personal information for work via messages or calls.Banco Santander never requests them in this way.
- If you have a credit on your account that was not requestedIt may be because you have become a victim of fraud, so you should contact your financial institution immediately.