Banco de Portugal warns of fraud via SMS, social media ads and calls – Portugal

The Bank of Portugal (BdP) warns of fraud attempts through ‘SMS’ messages, advertisements on social platforms and/or telephone calls, as pyramid schemes may be involved, the institution reported this Tuesday.

In these approaches, people are enticed to join ‘chat’ groups, to obtain additional income, as part of a job offer, an investment with a high return or the granting of credit with advantageous conditions.

“Hello, I’m from the human resources department of the social network/company ABC. We urgently need 30 part-time ‘online’ employees. Daily delivery of 50-500 euros. / We offer a part-time job for 300 to 800 euros per day Get in touch at wa.me/351xxxxxxxxx [link do grupo]”, is an example of attempted fraud that can be read in the statement.

After clicking on the ‘link’, the person is associated with a “work” group (on WhatsApp or Telegram), and may also be asked for a registration fee with the promise that it will be returned to them, plus a commission, after “completion of the first task”.

The promised remuneration is associated with tasks of viewing videos on social platforms (Youtube, TikTok, Spotify, etc.) and placing ‘likes’ or comments on them.

After “performing the tasks” requested, which will correspond to a supposed monetary value, an unmissable investment proposal may follow (for example, in “cryptocurrencies”).

It is also common to receive messages on social networks with the promise of immediate and uncomplicated credit, in this case, people are invited to pay an initial commission and, after making this payment, the person who made the contact disappears , failing to respond to messages.

Banco de Portugal calls for attention to this type of fraud “in which offenders intend to use your payment account as a “mula account”, that is, as an account for passing amounts obtained fraudulently: they credit your account, manipulating so that you can later transfer these amounts to another account.”

“Never click on ‘links’ present in messages received from strangers, nor open dubious messages. Do not join ‘chat’ groups of unknown origin. Do not make payments, nor install any program or application at the request of third parties, with a view to obtaining of easy income. It is very likely that any of the situations described are fraud” informs the BdP in a statement.

If you have any doubts or suspicions, contact your bank immediately, through the usual channels.