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 Published Thursday, June 4, 2020
due to pandemic
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
In the face of the pandemic crisis, cyber crimes may utilize the fear of citizens by increasing fake web pages, scam apps, and fake emails that seek to pretend to be like public government institutions officials sites.
According to the authorities, criminals make phone calls offering services such as Certified Digital Signature, the Labor Capitalization Fund (FCL), the Mandatory Pension Program (ROP), the Protect Bonus among other social aids.
Another strategy that these criminals use is to call people with the “excuse” of updating bank information or pretending to be part of some public institution staff to update their personal information.
In Costa Rica, all the procedures related to opening bank accounts are done directly at the bank offices, in-person. Bank representatives are not making calls to people.
If you have any questions regarding your credit or debit card, the recommendation is to ask the financial institution directly, through official communication channels, such as phone or customer service email, advises the Ministry of Science and Technology.
"The entire population should be alert with their personal data and their ID information, as fraudulent sites are looking for people to enter their bank access information to steal their data and money," said the ministry in its statement.
Neither government nor financial institutions will ever call to ask you for sensitive information such as your username, passwords, bank account numbers, security code, your Digital Signature or any other sensitive data related to your bank account.
One of the most recent frauds is the creation of websites, which appear to be official and have access to all banks for the client to enter personal information and passwords to carry out any procedure. "These sites are fake," authorities say.
In the case of receiving calls where sensitive bank information is requested, specialists recommend:
• Hang up immediately without speaking to the caller.
• Call the bank, the official phone numbers, if you have any questions.
• Never enter your personal data or your card details to non-official websites.
• Learn to recognize official websites, which use the following extensions: ".go.cr" for government sites, ".fi.cr" for local bank sites and ".sa.cr" for official sites of health institutions.
• In the case of sites with the extension ".com", it is recommended to call the bank's official phones and visit only the official page.
• Enter the official pages always typing the entire URL address, and never visit those sites through links sent to you by phone, text message or mail.
• Avoid connecting to free wireless networks and if you do, do not enter bank pages.
• Do not download email attachments where you do not know the sender.
• Verify that your passwords have a high level of security, that is, that they include capital letters, lowercase letters, numbers and some special character.
• Before entering personal information to a website, ID number, or password, verify and make sure it is an official site.
• Be wary of phone calls that tell you to enter a website to enter personal information, passwords, or bank numbers.
• Verify that your computer has antivirus and anti-malware.
• If you have to connect to the office from home, first coordinate with your company's technology team to make a connection using the virtual private network (VPN) services.
• If you have questions about any website, you can email the query to the Ministry, ciberseguridad@micitt.go.cr, where specialists will give you information on whether the site is safe or not.
The issue of cybersecurity must be addressed seriously and for this reason, you must protect your personal data to avoid being victims of cybercriminals who take advantage of panic or fear to make you fall into a scam, the ministry said.
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During this pandemic, what other scams have you heard of? We would like to know your
thoughts on this story. Send your comments to news@amcostarica.com |
