Alert issued about a new scam calls method

-Published: Tuesday, December 17, 2019-

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

Residents might be tricked by fake calls that seem to come from Nicaragua but really are money traps.

The Costa Rican Institute of Electricity said such calls carry the Nicaraguan country code 505, but in reality, they are scams, which are called wangiri.

Wangiri is a Japanese word meaning one ring and drop. And a wangiri call does just that. Calls usually cut off just as the phone rings, leaving a missed call message from an international or unusual number.

If the victim calls back, he or she will be routed to an expensive, premium rate service.

The intention of the fraudster is for victims to return the call, which is answered by an automated voice services. The teams seek to extend the conversation as much as possible and indicate that there is no additional cost. This is false because the connection is an outgoing international call.

The institute is recommended that citizens that in case of receiving this type of traffic from unknown sources, do not return the call.

Another type of call scam has been reported using the name of the Costa Rican Tourism Institute.

According to that institute, scammers call tourism-related companies, offering reports or awards that are supposedly delivered by the institute.

The scammers say the prize is due to the victim's good track record.

The scammers request from victims sensitive information, such as full name, identification number, address, and bank account numbers to receive the false prize.

The tourism institute urged owners of tourism-related companies and tour operators not to give information by phone.

No employees of the institute make calls to people offering prizes, it said, and the tourism institute has no program to deliver cash prizes to any company or tour operator.

In November, the experts of the Judicial Investigation Organization alert on the holiday season increases the number of fraud cases, especially telephone scams.

According to the agents, there are several signs that people can identify in order not to fall victim to the fraudulent phone calls.

Among the typical characteristics of these crooked calls are:

- Calls are generated from private or unknown phone numbers.

- The caller offers prizes in exchange for bank deposits.

- Another pretext of the call is to help in a process related to banks, or public institutions even when the victim never asked to be called by any bank agent or other institution.

- Those who makes the call asks for sensitive data such as personal information, bank codes, access codes to smartphones or computers.

- The scammer can also request the email address of the victim, and send a message that includes a suspicious link. Usually in that link, is sophisticated program or virus that steal information from computers or other devices.

- Another type of scam is text messages, where the sender requests a call back to an unknown phone number.

"Many of these fraudulent calls are generated from prisons," agents said.

According to the statistics of the Judicial Investigation Organization, during the first half of this year, from January to June, were filed more than 1,511 telephone scam reports.

By the end of this year, losses from phone call scams could be more than $ 9.7 million, judicial agents said.

To alert the public to avoid being victims of scams through fraudulent calls, specialists give the following list of advice:

- Never give personal information over the phone.A legitimate company, bank or public institution never makes calls to customers to request personal data.

- If you receive a call, from an alleged bank representative or other institution, you must hang up and call that institution directly, using the official telephone number, to verify if it is true that they make calls to the public.

- In the event that personal information is requested by means of a call, never give the information. It is safer to go to bank, company or institution offices and give the data to an official agent, in person.

- Periodically change passwords for access to banks, computers or other devices.

- Keep the debit or credit card always with you.

- Check that in stores clerks use official dataphones or payment terminals.

- If you are going to make purchases online, check the credibility and security of the sites where you make purchases, especially if you have to pay online for an affiliations or subscription.

- Always enter a bank's web address writing the full URL address. Never access your bank account from links provided in emails, in text messages, or in search engines.

- Always verify that the bank site shows the logo of a closed security lock. Usually, that logo is displayed before the URL address.

- Remember that banks, companies or public institutions never call customers to request bank account information.

The authorities have enabled the toll-free line 800-3368-6243, to report complaints of false calls and also to provide advice on how to avoid scam's phone calls.

A.M. Costa Rica urges readers to share this alert with their contacts.

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Have you heard about scam calls purportedly coming from Nicaragua or the Tourism Institute? We would like to know your thoughts on this story. Send your comments to news@amcostarica.com.