Scams impersonating companies are the order of the day. Those that impersonate the Post Office or another courier company are the most common, but also the best known to the general public. Cybercriminals continue to look for new ways to make us fall into their trap and now they have focused on a well-known parking management app: Telpark.
what has happened. They tell it in El Periódico. A new scam is circulating in which they use the image of the Telpark app. According to the Cybersecurity Agency of Catalonia, the scam is spreading by email and simulates that our Telpark account is temporarily suspended due to a problem with non-payment.
Through a link to a website that imitates Telpark’s, it takes us to a payment gateway that is actually the scammers’ way of stealing our banking information. Once they have our data, they could charge us more on the card or sell it on the black market.
Why is it important. We have been suffering from scams of this style for years and we are more aware, but scammers use new methods to continue adding victims. According to data from the CIS in 2024, almost half of the Spanish population has been a victim of a scam or an attempt and at least 80% have received suspicious messages or emails requesting personal or financial information. According to the Feedzai and GASA report, in 2023 the sum of money stolen in Spain through scams amounted to 7.75 billion euros. It may seem difficult for us to fall for a scam like this, but the reality is that it works for them.
The micropayment trick. It is one of the most used in this type of scams. When the amount they ask for is small, they make us less suspicious and increase the chances that we will end up making the payment. . This is the case of the famous scam of the package detained at customs in which they ask us for an amount to be able to receive the product. There are other cases where they ask us for a higher amount, such as the scam of the alleged DGT fine.
How to avoid falling for a scam. In the case of scams like Telpark, it is advisable to carefully check the email address from which we receive the message, that the message is well written and there are no inconsistencies, but above all never click on any link and much less give our personal or banking information.
The most effective scams are those that are most personalized to the victim, which is why the son-in-distress scam has wreaked havoc in our country. With the arrival of AI tools that can clone the voice, these types of scams become much more dangerous and it is necessary to adopt new methods, such as having a “family password” that we can use to verify that we are really talking to our family member.
Image | Telpark
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