Police Warn Of Bizum Scam

OFFICERS of the Technological Crimes Group of the Judicial Police of the Higher Police Headquarters of La Rioja have found a scam being carried out through ‘Bizum’.

As reported by Spains News, officers of the Technological Crimes Group of the Judicial Police of the Higher Police Headquarters of La Rioja have found a scam being carried out through ‘Bizum’.
Bizum is an app that makes payments simple and immediate. For example, money can be sent to individuals in a matter of three seconds. If the amount is small, some banks do not request an extra PIN. For large quantities, Bizum usually sends a message with a code that needs to be inputted to process the payment. The maximum amount that can be sent per day is €1,000 (£867.90), however, you can receive up to €2,000 (£1,735.83) per day. The speed of the payments and the option to send these small amounts has led to Bizum being an easy target for different types of fraud.
One of the most widespread types of fraud, as reported this week at the La Rioja Superior Headquarters, is when the alleged buyer – in this case, of a vehicle – contacted the seller to make a deposit on the purchase for the amount of €400 (£347.17) through the Bizum app. The seller then accepted the procedure, however, instead of making the payment, the buyer sends a request of the €400 payment to which the seller accepts and unknowingly sends over €400.
Subsequently, when realising the error the seller attempts to contact the alleged buyer to request the money back and the buyer does not reply. The seller has then reported the incident to the police.
Another case, which is a more widespread example, is where the victim receives a phone call from their company (supposedly) offering to lower their bill or offer them a gift. When the victim accepts the offer, they then have to provide their bank account details and the scammer associates these details with Bizum. As a PIN number is required to carry out the transaction, the victim, believing it is a code to activate the offer, provides the PIN and transfers are made.
The scammers persuade the victims to provide banking credentials, “abusing their good faith”, and then operate on the victims’ behalf making the transfer to their accounts through Bizum.
These are the recommendations to follow so as not to fall for the scam:

• Contact the bank directly to take the corresponding security measures
• Regularly monitor information online about yourself to make sure it cannot be used without your consent
• File a complaint at the nearest National Police Headquarters.