However, this is being used by cybercriminalstaking advantage of people’s fear, to try to scam people, with false notices posing as official organizations, so that victims fall into traps and can steal data or money.
Fraudulent SMS from the AEMET
And it is very easy to send a message posing as a person that we do not have on the agenda, so these criminals would be taking advantage of people’s fear to send, en masse, SMS alerting of possible weather alerts. , at the same time that they ask us for data, download an app, or access a link.
Subsequently, the scam can be very different, since the app we download has a virus that steals information from us, even another for which we have to pay to be able to view, something that, logically, would never have to be done with the official one, since an app will not even be necessary to receive real alerts.
To differentiate a real SMS from a possible scam, the first thing we will have to do is check if it is an alert or an SMS. In case of an alert, an alarm will sounddespite having the cell phone on silent, very different from the tone we have for messages. In addition, this will remain on the screen, you will not have to manually access a new message, so the only visual difference is very clear. Furthermore, as we said, the AEMET and the regional governments will not ask you to do anything, they will only inform you by text of what is happening, unlike the fraudulent ones who will look for an action, whether it is entering a site, entering your data, or download an app.
In short, we have to have be very careful with these types of scamsand not fall due to the nerves of the moment. If you receive a real notice, not only you will receive it, but all your family and friends from the same city or province, so you can ask them, if in doubt, if they also have it, and they will be able to advise you if you are suspicious. .
And you, have you received any messages of this style? The victims are randomand sending mass messages, so they will not focus on doing so in places really affected by weather problems, but rather they can reach you anywhere in Spain, since it is random, they just have a higher success rate in those points where they really expect something like that, and, therefore, out of fear, as we said, they end up biting.
Leave us a comment if you have received something similar, and thus, together, we can avoid these types of situations in which they take advantage of people’s worst moments, in order to get something more from them. Let’s hope that soon these types of scams will end.
