Mario Cárdenas had been awake for a few minutes. It was after 6 in the morning on Saturday and while he was preparing a coffee, he received a message from a friend on his phone through the WhatsApp messages application.
“Hello! How are you? … very well, thank God. I need a favor from you. You have Zelle active, right? Can you do me the favor of sending him some money, $ 200 for Zelle to a person. Tomorrow without fail I will return them to you, and I will give you something else for the favor. I’m going to send you the data. Tell me, did you happen to get a regular text message right now with a code. Can you send it to me? ”.
That was the message that Cárdenas received on WhatsApp and without think about it, he sent his friend $ 200 and the code requested that it had come to him by text. “They are good people, why not help him”, he thought.
However, after a few minutes he reacted. It was as if his instinct told him something was wrong. “I called my friend to confirm if the help was real and if it was okay. Immediately, he told me that they had hacked his number on WhatsApp, and that many of his friends and acquaintances had been scammed in the same way so that to him. ”
But everything did not stop there, two or three hours later the same day, Cárdenas began to receive messages from his friends to confirm if it was he who was asking them for money through WhatsApp, because they received the same request for digital express “loans”.
“I realized that not only had I been scammed with $ 200 but by providing the code they sent me, I gave them access to hack my WhatsApp account and take advantage of friends and relatives. A chain of scams was made in a matter of hours, ”he said.
He gave as an example the case of a nephew who had almost $ 2 taken from him, 000; and another only sent $ 75 because he did not have the $ 400 that they were asking you. “For each scam the amount of what they ask you varies.”
After this experience, Cárdenas recommended to any request for money, call first to the person to see if she is the one who needs help or has been hacked . “Never send codes or numbers that you do not know.”
And he considered that we must follow instinct, which in his case reacted late since he did not know realized he was scammed even after sending the money and the code. “I think I got carried away because it was too early.”
Other details to take into account to discover when it comes to a scam, is the language used. “I was talking about you my friend when we always talk about you; and we didn’t have the confidence to ask me for a loan out of nowhere, from one moment to the next. ”
Frauds on WhatsApp they are in fashion, it is heard more and more frequently among the Hispanic community of Los Angeles. This seems to have to do with the fact that the WhatsApp message application is very popular in many countries and especially in Latin America where it is the dominant platform, but not in the United States, except among Hispanics.
According to a survey by 2018 from the Pew Research Center, the 49% of Hispanics use WhatsApp against 21% of whites and 21% of African Americans; and it is even more popular among the immigrant community who use it to communicate with their family and friends in their countries of origin.
Nelson Santiago, manager of community outreach from consumer advocacy organization Consumer Action in Los Angeles said WhatsApp scams are like so many in which the scammer pretends to be someone you trust and demands information, money or access to an account, etc. .
“What is of utmost importance for the consumer is knowing how to recognize the signs of fraud. The details of the scam change, but the signals not so much. ”
The following are some of the warning signs of fraud:
- Unexpected communication: If you do not expect a call, email, text or visit from a company or a government office, the communication you receive could be that of an imposter.
- They ask for money or personal information: The goal of almost all scams is to get you to pay money or disclose personal information. If they ask for money or your information at some unexpected time, it could be a scam.
- Urgency: If you are pressured to act urgently (pay money, give personal information, or make an important decision), it generally means that someone does not want to give you the time to investigate and make a decision well informed. This is a common sign of fraud.
- A threat or a tempting offer: The scammer manages to get money or information from his victims by taking advantage of their emotions. They typically take advantage of the fear of being threatened with arrest, deportation, or loss of access to their accounts, etc .; or of hope in the face of promises to make money, get romance, solve a financial problem, etc.
For more tips on how consumers can protect themselves against fraud, and where to report, visit: https://www.consumer-action.org/modules/articles/scams_tip_sheet_sp
Santiago recommended following the suggestions offered by WhatsApp on how to protect accounts at:
English: https://faq.whatsapp.com/general/account-and-profile/stolen-accounts?lang=en
Spanish: https://faq.whatsapp.com/general/account-and-profile/stolen-accounts?lang=en
They can also visit the fact sheet: “Say No to Scams: Quick Tips to Protect Yourself Against Fraud” ( https://www.consumer-action.org/mo dules / articles / scams_tip_sheet_sp ).
It took Cárdenas almost 10 days to recover your WhatsApp account, since after reporting the fraud, the same company blocked it so that no one could operate it. “It took me a while because I couldn’t remember the PIN number I used when I opened the account.”