The Ocedic (Observatory of Cybercrime and Digital Evidence of Criminal Investigations), of the Austral University, presented a report on the digital scams reported during the first quarter of this year.
According to the investigation, the complaints by digital scams They increased almost 200% between January and March. On average, 4,800 registered frauds monthly in different modalities, among them, through Whatsapp, phishing, identity theft and there were even cases of the so-called “uncle’s story”.
The amount of the fraud with the digital scams amounts to approximately 1,200 million pesos, according to the director of Ocedic, Daniela Dupuy. “The increase is a global phenomenon that goes hand in hand with the advancement of technology, which grew exponentially during the pandemic and our country is no exception,” she reiterated.
According to the study, social networks have become one of the main targets for cybercriminals who commit this type of crime. They are ahead of transportation companies and tech giants like Apple, Google or Microsoft.
Among the most used modalities to capture victims of digital scams are problems with hombebanking, which is why many resort to social networks to solve it since they believe that it is the most direct means of communication with the financial institution; However it is not always so.
Experts say that many times the social network accounts in which the claim is made are true, but criminals are capable of taking user data from there and then contacting and posing as the bank.
WhatsApp scams
within the digital scams there are those that are made through WhatsApp, 90% are through conversations in which the authors contact each other directly and only in some cases do they involve virtual wallets.
According to experts, maximum precautions should be taken because these types of tools have less security in their credentials, which makes them more vulnerable to criminals.
