Currently, computer crimes have been increasing in the country since 2020, between 20 and 30%, specifically the theft of personal information through the WhatsApp instant messaging application, the head of the Computer Expertise Division of the Corps of Criminal and Criminalistic Scientific Investigations (CICPC), Pascual González.
“Since the beginning of the pandemic, in 2020, we have been able to notice an approximate increase of between 20 to 30% in this type of crime, which generates an alarm,” he stressed.
During an interview on the program “Coffee in the morning”, broadcast by Venezolana de Televisión (VTV), González explained that through WhatsApp instant messaging, unscrupulous people request the two-step verification code, with which they manage to get into the contacts of the person and in this way incur in crimes of economic fraud.
“Criminals make telephone calls, national or international numbers to people and ask them for the verification code of said social network that reaches the owner of the line,” he said, referred to a note of VTV.
“This code is achieved through a modality called smishingwhich is a phone call they make to offer a service and thus request said code, which has been that of WhatsApp ».
In this sense, this code allows criminals to access the contacts of the scammed user, “and in this way they request a certain amount of money from the contacts of the stolen person, demanding that a transfer be made electronically,” he added.
He stressed that these calls come out as foreign numbers, “to make people see or believe that it is WhatsApp and thus be able to obtain the person’s bank details.”
Website to report
Given the increase in computer crimes, the CICPC has created a digital portal: https://delitosinformaticos.cicpc.gob.ve/with the aim that citizens can be informed and request advice on this type of criminal actions committed through various digital platforms.
Also, through the page, people can file complaints if they have been victims of an act that requires the intervention of officials of this division, González said in a interview held at the beginning of August.
He emphasized that the waiting time in response to concerns will be a maximum of one day, after filing the complaint, since there will be a trained guard staff to attend to them.
With the launch of this website, the CICPC will position itself as a security organization adapted to new global threats in terms of criminal acts committed through the Internet.
