Bizum has become in recent years the favorite payment method in Spain. With more than 16 million users, it is a very convenient solution to send money instantly to friends and family, and also to pay in stores. Of course, the rise of Bizum has meant that there are those who try to take advantage and cheat through this system, and Social Security has been forced to warn citizens so that they do not fall into the trap.
Careful! Scams in the name of Social Security through Bizum
Hackers use two avenues to scam users through Bizum on behalf of Social Security .
Pending payment
In recent weeks, many users have received a text message or an email, supposedly from Social Security, telling them that they have a pending payment to this body .
To “avoid problems and penalties” they have to pay it immediately through Bizum to a phone number that appears in the message.
There are those who quickly realize that it is a hoax, but there have also been those who have fallen into the trap and made the payment .
The fact that victims make payment for Bizum is very “safe” for scammers for two reasons: the money reaches them instantly and, in addition, there is no way to cancel the operation.
Pending payment
This second form of scam may be a bit more difficult to detect for those who are not used to using Bizum. Hackers, supposedly on behalf of Social Security, tell their victims that they are going to pay them X amount of money through this system.
Currently there are many people who are waiting for Social Security to enter money, so it is easy to bite. Now, instead of making the payment, what they do is “request money” and to deceive the victims they put the concept “sending money”, making them believe that they are receiving an income instead of sending money from their account .
How to realize this? When you receive a Bizum you never have to enter a six-digit password . You simply receive an SMS informing you of the income, and that’s it.
Therefore, if someone tells you that they are going to make a payment through Bizum and the application asks you to enter a six-digit password, don’t bite! In reality what he is doing is asking you for money instead of sending it to you .
🔴🔴Remember: Social Security does NOT use Bizum to enter benefits.
⚠️If you receive a call, SMS or email in that sense, do not open it. #NoPiques #scam– Attention to the citizenship of @inclusiongob (@incluinfo) July 8, 2021
