GNR warns of scams – Faro district among the worst

Aiming to contribute to preventing and combating different types of scams, the Republican National Guard warns of the need to raise awareness among different target audiences about the different types of scams.

In 2022, they were registered by the Guard 17,969 fraud crimes, where the predominance of computer and communications scams with 6,518 occurrences and scams with bank fraud with 2,630 records.

In the year 2023, there was an increase compared to 2022, recording 21,548 crimes of fraud, highlighting The computer and communications fraud with 7 303 occurrences and fraud with bank fraud with 3,079 records.

With regard to the registration of frauds in 2022 and 2023, by district, the following was recorded:

In both years, it was found that the districts of Porto, Setúbal and Lisbon were the most affected, despite the occurrences being scattered throughout the national territory.

The GNR found that the most frequent occurrences concern the method of purchase and sale of goods, MB Way and publications on the Internet, as reflected in the following table:

*Provisional data

Aware of this type of occurrence, the National Republican Guard reinforces that, in a buy and sell situation, You should pay particular attention to:

• Do not accept payment methods you are unfamiliar with or follow instructions from strangers;
• Find out about any new payment service from your bank first;
• Never add/associate a cell phone number that is not yours or that you do not know about with banking services;
• Do not provide confidential or personal data via email or SMS;
• Do not follow links received via email or SMS;
• Check your bank account statement regularly.

In incidents using the platform MB Wayas a rule, the suspect contacts the victim, showing interest in purchasing a certain product that is for sale online (e.g. social networks, online sales platforms) and states that he intends to carry out the respective payment through the MB Way platformclaiming to be an easier and more effective way.

Scam can occur in the following ways:

• Realizing that the injured parties are unaware of how the application works, the suspect convinces them to go to an ATM. Following the suspect’s instructions, the victims end up associating the suspect’s cell phone number with their application data, being informed that the money will be available soon. From that moment on, the suspect has full control of access to the victim’s bank account, through the application;
• In another possibility, after getting the victim to accept receiving the amount via MB WAY, the fraudster selects the “Request money” option in his application instead of selecting the “Send money” option. The victim, not knowing in detail how the application works and waiting for the money to be sent, is informed by the suspect that he has already made the transfer and that he just needs to accept it. When selecting the accept option, the victim ends up being scammed.

Victims are chosen at random, with the choice falling on individuals who have items for sale on social media and online sales platforms.

For safe internet purchases, GNR advises:

• Check that the online store is safe, look for information about it on the Internet, namely whether it has a physical address, telephone number, email address and fax number;
• Make sure that the person responsible for the online store and its location are identified on the website;
• Always be wary of overly attractive offers, unmissable promotions and prices well below the market;
• Make sure that the website adopts security measures to guarantee the privacy of your data;
• After purchasing, pay attention to your bank statement;
• Have an updated antivirus on your computer;
• Make purchases on secure pages. To perform this check, confirm that the address starts with “https://”.

Furthermore, it should be noted that the Guard takes the opportunity to highlight a modus operandi which is currently less publicized and which is related to the buying and selling vehicles. Typically, the suspect detects the vehicle for sale online and contacts the seller, saying that he is interested in the vehicle and would like to see/test it, arranging a day and place to do so. In the time gap between the contact and the meeting with the owner, the suspect places the vehicle for sale online as his own, for a value much lower than the market price, thus exponentially increasing interest in the vehicle, thus easily managing to obtain a interested potential buyer (third person).

On the day of the visit/test to the vehicle, the suspect contacts the legitimate owner, informing him that he will not be the one to see the vehicle, but someone else, asking him not to mention monetary values. After the visit, the suspect informs the legitimate owner that he wants to buy the vehicle and that he will make a bank transfer, sending him proof of bank transfer (not made). Already in possession of the vehicle’s documents, the suspect negotiates its sale to the person who visited the vehicle, and in this way, when the legitimate owner realizes that the bank transfer was not carried out, the suspect has already carried out the sale and change of ownership from the vehicle to the third person (the one who made the visit). This is a scam that normally harms two people, the seller (legitimate owner) and buyer (third person).

Regarding the advice we can provide to avoid scams, we can consider the following:

• Confirm the identity of the seller/buyer;
• Suspect values ​​below market value;
• Be suspicious of intermediaries involved in the business;
• Check, at the time of the visit/test, all the details of the business;
• Before submitting the vehicle documentation, confirm the effectiveness of the bank transfer/payment.

In the case of fraud, the victim must report the crime to the police station in the area of ​​residence, so that available resources can be properly monitored and better managed, or they can submit the complaint electronically, using the digital platform on the website. address https://queixaselectronicas.mai.gov.pt. Reporting this type of crime is essential to help monitor it.

Source: GNR