Phishing scams in Uruguay, according to official data, are on the rise. Of those registered in the National Information Security Incident Response Center, it was noted that they grew 49% in 2020 and 19% more during 2021.
Phishing refers to a crime that is specifically computerized. It is defined by techniques that deceive a person by gaining their trust by posing as a company, person or service that manages to manipulate the victim into performing monetary actions that should not be done via email or via social networks.
José Callero, director of the National Information Security Incident Response Center, said that this is a trend that increased markedly” on the TV show The living from Channel 5.
He further explained that the frequency of these types of scams depends on the public to which they are directed and that analysts divide them into two variants.
The first is the “small scam”, where they manage to take small amounts of money. By repeating itself many times, a large amount is generated and it begins to function as a form of theft. For this reason it is that they go “under the radar”, because the transactions do not attract attention.
“The scams that try to get a small amount of money are the simple ones, which establish a relationship and after that they ask you for a spin. ‘Look, I’m your nephew, I kept the car, give me 50 dollars or 100 dollars.’ These types of scams are done in large numbers and since they are small, they go under the radar,” said Callero.
The second variant is scams that work with much larger amounts, but work less frequently. This type of robbery, explained the hierarch, takes a deeper job because a victim is profiled, studied, information is sought from it and then the business is understood.
“Many times he pretends to be the counterpart of a businessman and they ask him for money in a tone of urgency and in that urgency they make much larger movements of silver”, commented.
Callero warned that the population needs to be aware that these online threats can happen to anyone. From entrepreneurs to seniors. It can even occur with young people since the video games that they buy also appear cases of fraud.
“Attackers adapt quickly. There are threats for businessmen, for the elderly and for young people. Young people, to the degree of scams inside the games. There are times when you can make purchases in games, well, there are scams related to that. They are very skilled,” she concluded.
The most common forms of phishing are, then, the contact of strangers posing as old relatives, calls to landlines, purchases within online games, scams to companies and applications with the possibility of online purchases.
The Zanoli case
Uruguay was marked by what happened with Lucas Zanolli, an 18-year-old who wanted to sell his car through a shopping app. The outcome of the scam in which I was going to fall culminated in his death. He was killed after going to show the vehicle, which had been for sale since the beginning of December 2021 in Montevideo. The next day, They found his body outside a house in the neighborhood where the alleged scammer lived.
“The information we have is that It was agreed to see the car. Not once, but several times. In the last instance they went out to test the car and there the GPS signal is already lost, ”said prosecutor Edelman, in charge of the case, to The Daily. He commented that the fact that the objective was to steal the car aggravates the case.
There was no previous link between the murderer and Zanolli, sOnly the conversation they had through social networks and that was essential for the Police when capturing him.
“Your name was contacted. The family and friends acted quickly, and the Police and the Prosecutor’s Office also acted quickly and that was what made it easier to find him,” Edelman said.
