Health Ministry: Phone call to schedule vaccination is a scam

[bitheerani90]

With the expectation of the start of the vaccination against Covid-19 in Brazil, an opportunity arises for criminals to use their social engineering skills to harm citizens with utos. The Ministry of Health published on its Facebook profile a warning about a scam that uses vaccination as “bait” to steal accounts in “messaging apps”.

According to the message, the uk mobile database simulate an appointment for a COVID-19 vaccination and at the end ask the victim to enter a “confirmation code” sent to their device. If the victim does this, they will effectively be giving the criminals access to their WhatsApp or Telegram account.

In short, it's the old WhatsApp scam with a new look. Once they have access to your account, criminals start asking friends and relatives on your contact list for money, or use information from your conversations to extort you.

In July, an attempted fake vaccination scam on WhatsApp was recorded by a “victim” who was aware of what was happening. In the audio, the criminal not only confirmed the scheme but also admitted that the method could guarantee R$20,000 in just two weeks. After hearing the entire protocol of the fraud, the would-be victim asked if many people fall for the scheme. “If I make 50 calls a day, I’ll get [the code] in about 39,” says the scammer.

The Ministry of Health reminds that it does not call to schedule vaccinations, and that it never asks for confirmation of data. The national vaccination campaign against Covid-19 is due to begin on January 20 .

PIX is now used in scams on WhatsApp
In the past, when carrying out the WhatsApp scam, criminals would pretend to be someone the victim knew (using a stolen account) and ask for money to cover a supposed emergency expense. The money was sent via regular bank transfers, which took a few hours or even a day to actually be processed.

But with the arrival of PIX, which promises instant transactions between accounts – whether they are traditional or digital banks –, scams are changing and have gained a very dangerous detail: the difficulty in recovering the amounts.

This is because, due to the speed with which payments are sent, criminals can move them almost immediately, drastically reducing the time the victim has to understand that they have fallen for the WhatsApp scam and contact the bank to request the cancellation of the transaction.

According to some banks, a refund is possible, but it must be analyzed on a case-by-case basis, since the user authorized the transfer of the money. Even so, it is recommended that, as soon as the user realizes that he or she has been a victim of a WhatsApp scam, he or she notifies the bank to which the money was sent. Secondly, it is important to protect yourself by filing a police report. Finally, if there are problems resolving the issue with the bank, it is possible to file a complaint with the Central Bank.