We had been warning him for months in the first place and today the Government itself, through INCIBE (National Institute of Cybersecurity), has spoken about it. Specifically, the Institute has made public a statement through the website of the Internet Security Office alerting about the cases of fraud concocted around the Wallapop application . In the official statement you can read services such as DHL, as we reported several weeks ago.
DHL and NeoSurf: be careful not to bite into the Wallapop scam
At the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020, more than a hundred users publicly denounced through one of our articles several scams around the Wallapop application. The majority of testimonials agreed on the same thing: the scammers used the DHL brand to simulate fake money transfers . Others, on the contrary, made mention of what is known as NeoSurf cards , a type of electronic currency used to purchase products over the Internet. Now INCIBE is officially pronouncing on the matter through a statement.
Image taken from Forocoches.
Specifically, the original statement reads the following:
“Several cases of fraud attempts have been detected, the origin of which is in a contact interested in buying a product through a second-hand goods purchase and sale application, specifically Wallapop. The cybercriminal redirects the communication to e-mail, by means of which he tries to trick the seller into sending him money through prepaid cards, or giving him his bank details by phishing DHL. "
As we could see on tuexperto.com a few months ago, most bots used (and still use today) a single message to get in touch with victims. The message in question comes to simulate an alleged interest in the advertised product. Then, the user proposes a payment method that is off the official Wallapop channels . We leave you below with a message published on our website by one of the affected users:
"Thanks for your reply. I confess the interest I have in your ad that I would like to see made in Clean Hands but since I live in France I could make a money order in cash, that is, I send you the DHL money in cash in an envelope, and once I have received the money, the service will charge you to collect the package from your home.
If my payment method is convenient for you, I ask you to provide me with the following information so that I can proceed with the mandate as soon as possible: name, postal address, item price and telephone number. "
What to do if you have been a victim of one of these scams
The Government has activated an official alert and has published an action protocol for this type of fraud. If we have made the indicated payment, we will have to file a complaint with the Civil Guard through the Grupo de Critos Telemáticos website. Then we will refer to a barracks with the largest number of graphic evidence possible together with the original complaint form to make the complaint official.
Civil Guard website.
In case of having provided any personal or banking information (photograph of the ID, credit card number, expiration date, security code ...), INCIBE recommends contacting the financial institution of the card as soon as possible to block any movement unwanted, as well as with the authorities.