How do you not fall for e-mail scams that steal bank passwords?

Although scammers try to apply scams by Facebook or WhatsApp, the most serious scams -- which steal bank passwords -- still occur mainly by email and sometimes also by SMS torpedoes. Recognizing these scams from the message alone is more difficult than one might think, but there is another simple solution.

The main tip for checking the authenticity of an email has nothing to do with the message itself. That's because you should look for a contact phone number or other means of answering the supposed sender to check if that email was actually sent. For example, if you received an email from your bank, call your manager or other bank service channel before clicking on any link or opening any message attachment.

If the message has an "anonymous" sender, forget it. Indeed, it's probably a scam. If you were extremely curious to open the link or attachment, know that this is exactly the reaction that the criminal tried to provoke.

Check out some tips to understand more about email and SMS frauds:

1. Do not be suspicious only of messages that have sensitive content. A message that leads you to a virus that steals bank passwords can have any content. It can be a cheating warning, a love confession, a pending bill, a news item of the day, or even an alleged shipment that has been dispatched. After the virus has been installed on your computer, it doesn’t matter how the criminal managed to convince you to install the digital plague. So any theme is worth it -- the limit is the creativity of the criminal.

2. Unexpected communications are dangerous, but do not rely on personal data. It's not because an email carries your full name, your phone number or even your ID number that the message is legitimate. Criminals have access to many people's personal data, which allows them to send very personalized messages. Therefore, it is no use trusting the presence of personal data in the email. Instead, you should ask the following question: "Did I really expect to receive this email today?”

3. Do not trust the sender or the links in the email. If the sender looks legitimate and the message links are apparently directing to the right website, that means the message is safe, right? Wrong. Don't trust this information. It's easy to discard an unsophisticated fraudulent email that uses a fake sender, but never think that a message is legitimate because the sender seems to be a true one. The sender of an email can be faked very easily and criminals can use a number of tricks to mask a fake link. They can use similar letters like "I" and "l" (upper case i and lower case L) and other more sophisticated techniques to make links look real, even when they are not.

4. Frauds are reinvented daily. The Catalogue of Frauds of the National Network of Education and Research (RNP, in portuguese) records today more than 12 thousand types of fraud sent by email. Each one of these frauds was fired to thousands or millions of internet users. You can know the frauds to get an idea of the tricks used by criminals, but these scams are constantly reinvented. It is always possible that you are receiving a "pioneering" scam.

5. Never enter bank details after clicking on a link. No matter what the circumstance. If you came to a page through a link and it asked for your bank details, close the page immediately. You should only enter bank details when you open the bank application yourself on your mobile phone or enter the bank address in your browser. Avoid using search engines to find your bank's website. Find the address and enter it yourself, checking the address before logging in. If possible, enter your bank address with "https://" at the beginning, as this ensures that your access will not be redirected.

What are some of the themes used in frauds?

Criminals are always using new themes in online frauds. Therefore, it’s no use relying only on the scams that have already been performed.

However, in order to have an idea, these are some of the themes used:

PENALTIES

- Overdue accounts and outstanding payments;

- Paying bills;

- Inclusion of the name in the credit protection service;

- Need to update registration;

- Cancellation service (email, social networks and many others) or blocking of bank account;

- Call for police investigation, judicial process or similar;

ADVANTAGES

- False sales, including products, internet services, financial services, etc;