He Comprehensive Medical Assistance Program (PAMI) It is the social work of older adults. And given the new modification of the conditions and requirements to access the free medicinesthe organization warned about cases of virtual scams and hacking of its members.
The virtual scams They are one of the new means that criminals have to commit crimes. They reinvent themselves day by day and recruit victims through all available channels: from email, calls that impersonate identities, fake job proposals or WhatsApp text messages or other applications with links that pretend to be real.
The purpose of these illegal actions is steal personal and banking data of the victims, in order to steal their money by taking advantage of their lack of knowledge in computer science and technology.
And a group of people who tend to be uninformed on these issues is the older adults. Those who are not usually so aware of technological updates, being the most vulnerable age group and prone to trusting these deceptions.
That is why PAMI issued a warning for retirees, pensioners and other members to be alert to this new crime technique.
These are the new virtual scams for retirees
PAMI warned on its social networks about cases of phishing (identity theft to steal personal and banking data) related to social work and the new requirements to access full coverage of members’ medications.
With this last change, there emerged hundreds of doubts among older adults on how to upload the new required information to the official website and what to bring to the service offices. A moment of vulnerability that criminals took advantage of.
According to the statement that was published on the organization’s social networks, a message is circulating on WhatsApp that contains a link next to the text “New 100% discount subsidy for retirees. Register by selecting the blue letters”. If the link is entered, the criminals take over the victim’s account and personal and banking data.
PAMI reminded its members that the entity, workers of the organization or any program They are not going to contact them to request or offer to start any procedure. So if they send you suspicious links, do not enter and ask someone you trust for help.
How to avoid falling for virtual scams?
To avoid falling into these deceptions, PAMI and the Ministry of National Security recommend:
- Never respond to emails that request personal information and not to do click in the link they share, nor download attachments that are sent through social networks.
- Protect personal information with passwords that are difficult to guess and, if possible, change them periodically.
- Keep in mind that “A bank or public body will never ask you to change your personal data or passwords online.”, through a link sent in an email, through social networks or through a phone call.
- Be attentive to the wording of the message or in the link sent. Many times it is almost imperceptible, but somewhere they reveal the fraud: misspellings or alterations in the URL that is supposedly official.
- If you are contacted by a public or private organization via WhatsApp, verify the authentication logo of the public body that is being contacted.
From the social work they indicated that if you suspect that you are being a victim of a scam or virtual crime, end the communication immediately and make a claim by calling 138 “Pami Listen and Respond”, or through official channels of the organism (they are identified with the blue check mark).
Source: Ambito
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