This is the new scam for WhatsApp and Bizum; they pretend to be one of your contacts | #whatsapp | #lovescams | #phonescams

Googling the terms ‘hack whatsapp’ yields almost 2.5 million results in less than 0.4 seconds. And it is that WhatsApp has the gift of being the most used messaging application in the world, and one of the most popular, since more than 1/4 of the entire world population uses it every month.

But this means that it is also the preferred medium to try hoaxes, scams, malware attacks and Phishing distribution, due to the enormous viral reach that WhatsApp offers. And if you already use it in conjunction with another widely used (and demanded) platform such as Bizum, then the danger increases.

WhatsApp scam using Bizum

Bizum, that as defined by La Caixa for example it is “a system compatible with the rest of Spanish banking entities that connects customers’ bank accounts linked to their mobile phone number (It is not necessary to know any IBAN code to send the money) ”. Since each entity is independent, Bizum can have different ways of being used from one bank to another, but above all, the convenience of its use prevails.

And precisely given its extension, which increasingly includes more Spanish banking entities, criminals are beginning to include it in their scam. As in the following, although only under mention. A scam that the Civil Guard has been warning of these days.

How does this scam start? As follows:

1. You suddenly receive a message notice on WhatsApp, a notice of a number that you do not have registered
2. This unknown user tells you a story prepared in advance: He has made you a money transfer using the Bizum platform by mistake -About 50 euros-, since your number is very similar to that of an artist to whom I wanted to pay an order.
3. The stranger asks you to if you can return his money through Bizum, otherwise you cannot pay that artist.
4. Suddenly it comes to you another WhatsApp from another unknown number that looks a lot like yours (there we have the hook): It is the artist, who verifies the story that the previous subject is telling you.
5. The artist asks you if you can transfer that money to him that you have received by mistake, directly to him.
6. And now comes the scam: When you offer to do it through the same system through a Bizum, the artist tells you that they don’t have one, and that if you can make a bank transfer.
7. If you bite, you will have lost 50 euros very difficult to recover, and also exposed the numbering of your bank account.

As we can see, cybercriminals try to use social engineering techniques by appealing to the user. But first, we talk about unknown numbers. And second: you just have to check the bank account statement on your mobile to see that no money has arrived, and therefore they are trying to scam you.