That message, with the number from an unknown country and offering income for an easy job, also reached David Guzmán’s WhatsApp.
As has happened to thousands of people in Latin America, these types of messages became somewhat constant: “On several occasions I received messages from a number I don’t know, from China or there,” Guzmán tells BBC Mundo.
“One day I said ‘Well, what could happen.’ The message says that they are inviting you to work for a platform in Wuhan, China, and they mention a social network, the equivalent of TikTok there,” explains the 24-year-old.
The job consisted of “like” videos and send a screenshot as proof. In exchange you would receive a payment to your bank account.
“Then I said ‘It’s okay if I give away a few likes, No? ‘What’s the worst that can happen?’”
First they gave him the equivalent of about US$6 for completing the “tasks” who was assigned to a person on the other end of the phone, who used unnatural Spanish, as if passed through an online translator.
“It’s very strange to chat with them,” says Guzmán. They asked for details of his bank account to make payments.
“They sent me the first reward and told me that I was a good fit for the job. They gave me a Telegram channel. And it was not just me, but 500 participants. “They are very, very large groups,” he recalls.
But then the work started to get strange. In addition to assigning him two “likes” jobs, they asked him for a third task: invest the money earned in a supposed cryptocurrency platform.
“I continued with the likes and in this scheme they make you feel like you win things, like you are working for this. I think that’s where the game lies, a mental stimulus to the people that you’re working with. It is full of emojis and motivational messages on Telegram,” he explains.
Then they asked him to enter the “next level” of this “job”, one in which we must invest more. They asked him almost US$60 to enter. Guzmán says he had to borrow money from acquaintances to make the payment.
“You have won!” they replied. But to receive his winnings, he had to put in another US$12. It was already 1,200 pesos sent, or almost US$70.
“I sent them the money they told me and it took [el contacto] to answer me about 3 minutes. That felt like an hour and that I had lost the money,” Guzmán recalls.
But no, they sent about US$110 to his account. “I was about 1,900 [pesos] in the account and I returned what I had borrowed and I was left with like 900.”
And he chose to no longer continue in the “job” or reinvest the new sums that were indicated to him. “They insisted on me with sloppy Spanish [mal escrito]translated, that I would send them at least half,” he recalls.
The multiple scams
Guzmán’s experience is part of a variety of scams circulating on platforms like WhatsApp.
In almost all of them, the first objective is for the person who receives the message to fall for the hook and respond to that type of message.
Other types of scams include the offer of jobs in well-known companieswith very attractive salaries, with the aim of obtaining the greatest amount of information about the person.
This data can be used in two ways: one is the Identity Theftsince the scammers have already managed to obtain a lot of sensitive personal information that can be used to carry out financial transactions, such as requesting credit or accessing the victim’s bank account.
Another use of this data is its sale to companies that use that metadata for advertising or marketing purposes.
“Previously it was just a matter of clicking on the offer, and taking you to a fraudulent site, which made itself look like an official one, to steal your data. Now it’s the stimuli,” explains cybersecurity expert Verónica Becerra, from the firm Offensive Hacking & Security Networks.
“You do it and they actually give you money, but when you start to go up a level, a third level, they start charging you so that you supposedly receive more money. And that is when the scam comes,” he adds.
Although not all victims hand over large sums, cybercriminals rely on only a few people to reach high levels of the pyramid scheme to obtain a good loot.
The implementation of new tools artificial intelligence It has also generated new forms of scam.
When a WhatsApp (or other platforms) user answers a video call from an unknown number, your face can be recorded and then used in a deepfake.
Through it, scammers can make it seem like the person is saying something they never said.
Cybercriminals can extort money from the victim’s contacts or ask them for money in a false moment of urgency.
“I heard of a case that when answering a video call to someone they played an adult video, making it appear that this person was watching it. And then they extorted him“says Becerra.
How to avoid scams?
For the cybersecurity expert, WhatsApp is one of the most used means for these crimes, not because the platform itself has security vulnerabilities, but because It is the most used in the world with more than 2,000 million users. And this means that there is a larger universe of possible victims.
However, a first point to avoid possible risks is keep apps like this up to date with the latest versions, as there may be new security patches.
Even more important is do not answer unknown numbersbecause with a few questions they will try to obtain as much personal data as possible.
“At that moment they already have a lot of data about you, banking information, address information, many things,” warns Becerra.
“What I have seen is that younger people don’t care if their information is stolen. On social media they go so far as to say ‘It doesn’t matter, because they already gave me so much money.’ What they don’t know is the amount of money that can be obtained for some data,” she adds.
“In older adults, the issue changes to misinformation and little knowledge of this type of tools. That is why cybercriminals take advantage of them.”
In any case, Companies will not normally contact job applicants via WhatsApp. Even less if the person never applied for the position.
And if you really applied for the job or are interested in one, it is advisable to call the companies directly to ask about official offers.
Serious companies do not use numbers with strange international prefixes or email accounts in mass services (Gmail, Outlook or others).
Another recommendation is activate double verification from a WhatsApp account or other platforms, which prevents a scammer from trying to steal an account through identity theft. “It’s an additional layer of access to your platform.”
Joshua Breckman, a spokesperson for Meta (the parent company of WhatsApp), explains to BBC Mundo that the end-to-end encryption of chats on the platform does not allow the company to review the content of the conversations to detect scams.
But he recommends reading a guide that WhatsApp has prepared about scams and following the instructions to report suspicious numbers in this link.
“We have invested in marketing campaigns in Latin America in recent years to educate users on how to spot scams and give more visibility to the tools available in the app (listed in the website link above). These campaigns have been carried out on social networks, television, radio and the press,” said Breckman.
Becerra also says that it is advisable do not have sensitive information in chatssuch as photos of IDs, passwords for service accounts or personal data, since cybercriminals usually look for this type of information in conversations.
And although it is important to have a backup of your history in the cloud, you must have strong passwords in those services (Google Drive, iCloud or others).
If the key is weak, scammers may also find the personal information of the victim they are looking for there.
And if information theft has already occurred, it is also recommended go to the cyber police local “to leave a record, in case there is a major crime,” says Becerra.
“You should also avoid giving a lot of information in chats, even to contacts,” he adds.
“You don’t always know for sure who is on the other side.”
Click to read more stories from BBC News Mundo.
Remember that you can receive our notifications. Download the latest version of the app and activate them so you don’t miss our best content.
- Do you already know our YouTube channel? Subscribe!