Fraudsters take advantage of people's fears about the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic and send them bombed messages under the pretext of advice to prevent its danger, or even claim that there are possible treatments for it. Once the victim falls into this trap, they will only obtain his sensitive personal and banking information. These actions increased in frequency after the increased work from home under these conditions. How to protect yourself from falling prey to such deceptive parties?
More calls and text messages presenting potential treatments, tests, or claiming to be from the Social Security Administration are increasing. As an example, Corbin Davenport, a contributor to Android Police, “an official app for a popular news portal,” received a phishing text message this week from someone pretending to be his bank.
The Federal Communications Commission has detected some fraud related to the Coronavirus. The Federal Trade Commission also has a list of these reported hoaxes. Even the FBI has issued a warning about these fraudulent scams that take advantage of the people-terror situation of the Corona pandemic.
Coronavirus-related messages are only one type of fraudulent text message; For example, fraudsters also send messages claiming that your iCloud account has been hacked in an attempt to trick you into handing over your account information, and as long as they get that information, they can then use it to take over your phone number or access your accounts online.
Here are some general tips for what to do and what not to do when you receive a spam.
Do not open any links
Fraudsters are deceitful. They will send messages that, at first glance, appear to be legitimate and from a trusted company, such as a telecom company, bank or medical facility, and include a link asking you to verify your account information. The link then takes you to a site that may appear real, but is actually fake. The goal is to collect your username, password and other personal information for future use. If you get a message like this with a link, do not open it. If you open it, do not enter any account details or personal information.
Look at this fake Verizon site that has been used in phishing attempts, as described on How To Geek. The site looks real and even redirects to the official Verizon site after the evil actors took your account credentials. Really worrisome and scary things.
Do your research before taking any action
You may be subscribed to a service, and you may receive phishing messages that are compatible with this service. One of the common ways to unsubscribe is by replying with the word "Unsubscribe", "Unsub" or STOP in some places. This is a quick and easy way to terminate messages sent from that entity or another. But scammers use this same tool to trick you into responding to their messages, letting them know that your phone number is valid and can target it with more messages or robotic calls.
Instead of responding quickly to a message with a cancellation or STOP, take a few seconds to search for the number or name of the sender online to see if it is a reputable organization or a trusted body. And if you check its reliability, deal with it as you wish.
Report fraudulent messages
If you are unable to verify the sender of the message, or suspect it is a scam, you can contact your carrier and investigate. It is possible to submit a complaint or request the customer service to cancel any messages containing offers, advertisements or advertisements from any party whatsoever. Of course, the ban will not be permanently, but it will be much less than before.
Block that message or this number from your phone
Another option is to block the number yourself. Both iOS and Android have built-in tools to block messages and calls from specific numbers.
Block messages on iPhone
On an iPhone, open the message in the Messages app and tap the profile picture at the top, then tap the info button.
On the next screen, tap the phone number
Then at the bottom of the screen tap Block this caller.
Following these steps will block the number from both messages and calling you.
Block messages on Android
As is usually the case with Android phones, the process for blocking the number will vary depending on the manufacturer of your phone and the messaging app you are using.
If you use the Google Messages app, start by opening the spam message, then clicking on the menu button in the upper-right corner and selecting Details from the options menu. On the next screen, select Block and Report Spam followed by "OK". The Messages app will send the number and the previous ten messages from it to Google for analysis to improve future spam detection. Your responses to the number are not sent to Google. If you prefer to block the number, uncheck the box next to "Report spam" before clicking "OK."
Samsung Message users will need to open the conversation, click on the three dots in the upper-right corner and select Block Number and then Block.
And just as you deal with spam, it can also handle automated random calls. It is true that you won't be able to permanently put a stop to this, but you can at least reduce the number of times your phone rings. Fraudulent matters may increase in circumstances like these, and we must take caution and caution as much as possible.
Source:
I previously received an email from a fraudulent party that uses the same Apple name and the same page and email format that includes my purchase from within an application for an amount of up to $ 60, and the e-mail guarantees that if it was not me who made the process, I should cancel the purchase quickly in order to recover the amount
Indeed, I entered the link and it took me to a page identical to the Apple pages, and it started asking me to enter the user name, password and other information, until I reached the request to insert a credit card, thank God, as if something inspired me to stop and wonder why Apple is asking for bank card information! And I realized that I had fallen into the trap of the fraudulent party, and I knew that the sender is not Apple by checking the domain by clicking on it to show the sender's email that has nothing to do with Apple
Here, I left the link and changed the password directly
Praise be to God, I survived this fraud, which was perfected to the last degree ... and I realized later that if the purchase had been made from inside the concealed, I should have received a letter with a deduction of the amount
But sometimes a person does not think slowly when exposed to such things
I liked to share to benefit and thank you
May Allah reward you all the best. I benefited from you a lot
I agree with you
Click the reply button. To respond to the comment. I agree with you that you mentioned, I don’t know 🤷♂️ with whom you agree 😊
You mentioned the way to block or notify messages in (any jQuery), but you did not indicate how to permanently block messages in email in iOS 13.
Peace be upon you, iPhone Islam
I have followed you for more than six or seven years since the first release of the iPhone 4
And I benefit from you very much and you save us times in knowing information in a wonderful way. But these days despite the tremendous development in your application. However, most of them are turning to explanations and visual summaries through YouTube. And the channels are competing in producing meaningful and powerful content
Wow, you approached this approach so that the explanation is in the form of a video also here on the application and also on YouTube, and as you have succeeded here in developing yourselves, we expect you to have a sweeping success.
God bless you. We will act on this advice soon, God willing