Online scams to be on the lookout for

The crime rate in Spain is pretty low when you place it beside its fellow European countries. Spain comes in at number 22 in levels of criminality in Europe, far below France, Belgium and the UK. But one offence that seems to proliferate here is cases of fraud, especially via phone or Internet.

Earlier this year, the National Police arrested 59 people from a criminal organisation dedicated to defrauding parents via WhatsApp by pretending to be their children and in need of money. The gang conned victims out of €460,000.

Con artists play off our disadvantage or vulnerability

People are hoodwinked more frequently, according to Inspector Antonino J. Flores, head of the National Police’s Cybercrime unit, when ‘we are in situations of disadvantage or vulnerability, such as looking for work, when wanting to establish a romantic relationship, or when wanting to rent a service, such as a holiday apartment or a concert ticket.’ Added to those, we can add moments when we let our guard down with messages that appear to be from a trustworthy source, such as a government department.

By now, many of us living in Spain, will have received the text message falsely notifying us of a package we have to pay duty on from Correos, or one from the DGT (government department of transport) that we must urgently pay a fine. There are multiple scam threats doing the rounds at the moment, but which ones are most common?

Scams on social media

Social media is a perfect vehicle for scam advertisements offering cut-price deals on brand name shoes or ridiculously cheap bicycles. Often, the graphic design is shoddy and the accompanying text is full of unprofessional emojis and spelling mistakes. The advice here would be to check if the offer exists on the brand’s official website and, if unsure, never click on the link in the social media advertisement at all.

If you get conned this way, and thousands have, don’t think that’s the end of the unfortunate episode. You probably need to change your bank card too, as now they have your card details and are likely to remove small, sometimes imperceptible amounts each month.

Renting a summer house or apartment can be a stressful activity as prices skyrocket, and availability thins out. But beware of scammers advertising properties that either don’t exist, or that belong to someone else who they’ve copied the details from. It’s always safer, if you don’t know the renter, to opt for well-known sites.

Most frequent phone message scams

There is a fraudulent text message campaign doing the rounds at the moment alleging to be from the DGT. It states that receivers have an unpaid fine and must fill in details. Never click on a link given in an unsolicited text message

There have also been reports of messages being received asking victims to upload a photo of both sides of their ID and a payslip to a supposed Tax Agency website to resolve an issue with their income tax return, which has resulted in a supposed high fine they must pay. Don’t buy it for a second. It’s as fake as they come.

These are just a few examples of scams. But there are many more, both aimed at individuals and companies. Be suspicious. Be very careful. Do you know of any others Euro Weekly News readers should be on the lookout for? Have you suffered at the hands of con artists? Let us know about it.