Account emptied in just 20 minutes: how does it happen

a law Project Emptyed in just 20 minutes, here is the new online scam that threatens our savings. In 2020 alone, 98,000 people were counted in Italy. And it continues to increase, even more since the beginning of the epidemic. Manuel Poncenor, a compensation attorney who works for Adiconsum, a consumer advocacy association, explained to Today who – which “In the past year and a half, online banking fraud has increased at an exponential rate.” even because of “Anyone can fall victim to these traps, even the most experienced.” Indeed, as the lawyer continued, “This malware has now reached a high level of sophistication. Even a normal computer protection system is not enough to prevent this phenomenon”.

SMS that empties your account

The most targeted age group is between 40 and 60 years old. The most common method is the method known as SMS owl. A message is sent to the customer with a link to a clone site, that is, a fake website identical to the site of a banking institution. There is no danger in opening the link, the problem appears later, when the user receives a phone call from a fictitious bank official warning him that a possible scam is in progress. It invites him to immediately provide his login credentials. At this point, it only takes about twenty minutes to kick the user out of their system major banks We prevent any control. As we have said, the most affected groups are those between the ages of 40 and 60, specifically “The scam is almost always used on an app downloaded on a smartphone. Therefore, the elderly are often excused from the problem, as are the very young who often do not have a bank account.”

Who can help us

In our country, the BFA, the Financial Banking Arbitrator, comes to the rescue, a structure that offers lower costs and shorter times than normal judicial procedures. “Often a scam user gets a partial refund. This is because a full money back guarantee would allow the user to be indifferent and inattentive.” Moreover, the reimbursement varies according to the complexity of the scam. This means that the higher the number of files to cheat He was smart and good, the higher the refund. However, the old saying “prevention is always better than cure”. Bonsignore was eager to stress that “The legal aid that Adiconsum provides is very specialized. But to prevent these scams, it is necessary to conduct an awareness campaign and inform users.”