With the use of new technologies and new functions within our mobile devices, the modalities of scams between hackers and technology scammers also change. In recent years, we have already seen how we have been victims of “spam” messages, scams through emails , WhatsApp or SMS messages, but now the Malaga Provincial Police Station has sounded the alarm about a new type of scam that is being carried out. done through the use of QR codes. We explain what it is and how you can avoid it.
The National Police warns about a scam using QR codes
As we are not “newbies” to technology scams, many people do not trust anything they receive via email, SMS or WhatsApp, but many others continue to fall into the trap of scammers, so from Malaga, the police warn that a new scam is being carried out in which what is received is a QR code that, when scanned by our device, violates our privacy.
What is a QR code?
Remember that a QR code is a dot matrix or a two-dimensional barcode that stores information . When this matrix is decrypted on the mobile device through the QR reader, a web page is usually opened, or it can also be a profile on social networks or an email or the link to download an app.
How is this new scam?
Undoubtedly, the QR code makes it easier for us to use mobile devices and how we interact with them, but from the Malaga Provincial Police Station they have issued a statement explaining how the Covid-19 pandemic has changed some of our habits in regarding the use of mobile phones.
In this way, now it is common to go to a gym, a store or a restaurant and find ourselves with a QR code when checking prices or reading the menu, but according to the police, these types of codes are the ones used by the scammers to use them in a criminal way and to be able to get our personal data as well as the banking ones.
What can we do to avoid it?
The police offer several tips so that we can avoid this type of scam. The first thing they recommend is that we do not click on any link that reaches us, whether it comes to us by mail or SMS, and do not scan any unknown QR code.
On the other hand, we can also configure the app that we use to scan the QR codes on our smartphone so that it does not automatically redirect us to the page or also, so that it offers us a preview of the page where we are going to enter.
They also advise not to scan QR codes that are on apparently clean advertising or those that are devoid of advertising and we do not have to scan the codes that serve to announce offers or giveaways. In these cases, if we want to participate in what is advertised, they advise us to write down the information that appears about the advertised company or product and search for it online to make sure whether or not it is a scam.
