oh The Bank of Portugal (BdP) warns about fraud attempts through SMS messages, advertising on social platforms and/or telephone calls, since pyramid schemes may be involved, the institution reported this Tuesday.
In these approaches, people are attracted to join chat groupsto obtain additional income, within the framework of a job offer, a highly profitable investment or the granting of credit on advantageous conditions.
“Hello, I’m from the human resources department of the social network/company ABC. We urgently need 30 part-time ‘online’ employees. Daily delivery from 50-500 euros. / We offer a part-time job from 300 to 800 euros per day. Get in touch at wa.me/351xxxxxxxxx [link do grupo]”, is an example of attempted fraud as read in a statement.
After clicking on the ‘link’, the person is associated with a “work” group (WhatsApp or Telegram), and can also be asked for a registration fee with the promise that they will return it to you, plus a commission, after “completing the first task.”
The promised remuneration is associated with video viewing tasks on social platforms (Youtube, TikTok, Spotify, etc.) and place ‘likes’ or comments ourselves.
After “performing the requested tasks”, which will correspond to a supposed monetary value, the unmissable investment proposal (for example, in “cryptocurrencies”).
It is also common receive messages on social networks with the promise of immediate and uncomplicated credit, in this case people are invited to pay an initial commission and, after making this payment, the person who made the contact disappears, without further responding to the messages.
The Bank of Portugal draws attention to this type of fraud “in which offenders intend to use their payment account as “mule account”That is, as a transfer account for amounts obtained fraudulently: they credit you in the account, manipulating you so that you later transfer those amounts to another account.”
“Never click ‘links’ present in messages received from strangers, do not open dubious messages. Do not join chat groups of unknown origin. Do not make payments or install any program or application at the request of third parties, with the aim of obtaining easy income. It is very likely that some of the situations described are fraud,” the BdP reports in a statement.
In case of doubt or suspicion, contact your bank immediatelythrough the usual channels.
Source: Observadora
