Mobile frauds: do you know how to protect yourself?

For some years now, cases of mobile fraud have increased significantly, after all, most people now use at least one mobile device.

With the personal and financial data of other people in hand, fraudsters can act in different ways, such as opening accounts at banks or "fake" companies to apply for scams, request credit cards, purchase phone lines or even finance more expensive products, such as electronics or cars.

If you don't want to go through this situation, learn more about it and avoid losses!

How does mobile fraud happen?

The increase in mobile fraud attempts is due to several factors, such as the lack of devices’ security and the theft of mobile phones or credit cards.

However, these scams happen in basically three ways: phishing, public WiFi or fake websites and apps from shops and banks.

When you install a fake app on your phone, for example, it automatically downloads a virus. This way, the fake pages display unmissable offers and, by simulating the purchase, it offers only the option of paying by credit card, and this time is when the data is stolen.

Phishing is a type of attack that usually starts with an email requesting a click to activate a particular page or access (from a bank, for example) and when you click, you are redirected to a fake page that asks for your data.

Mobile fraud via public WiFi happens when a person connected to the same network as you has bad intentions and performs the attack in real time, directing you to a fake website to be able to access your personal or credit card data.

How to protect yourself from mobile fraud?

To avoid falling for these scams, there are some services that can help. Online authentication, for example, provides an alert about a possible fake page. While cryptography, another excellent solution, works to turn sent and received information into code, which is impossible for hackers to access.

In addition, there are several other forms of protection to avoid falling into scams through mobile devices. Read below!

- check if the site of the store or the bank has a padlock in the browser bar;

- make sure that the page address starts with "https" (guarantee that the data is encrypted);

- check if the site has a digital security certificate;

- avoid shopping when using public WiFi;

- mistrust emails in the format of raffles, contests and prizes;

- when the message "click here" appears, only click if you are sure it is reliable;

- when opening an account at a bank, ask about the security mechanisms they offer in internet banking, such as sending a Token, for example.