The Guardia Civil of the Almeria Command warns of this type of scam, where the perpetrators monitor social networks and when they notice that a person publishes photographs of their holidays, through the same networks they access the contacts of their friends and family, with whom they subsequently contact and by means of deception ask them for money, pretending to be their friend/family member, to collect their luggage that is being held at a foreign airport.
These messages are sent through the same social network or instant messaging applications, in which they trick the victims into believing that they are a relative/friend and that they are in a foreign airport and have their luggage detained, to recover it they need to pay a fee and for this reason they ask them to send them money urgently.
In these scams our friend or relative will always need the money urgently, they will not be able to contact us from their usual phone line and will have to do so from a foreign phone, the money will be requested to be sent through remittance companies or transfer to foreign bank accounts and they will send us a message from the supposed airline company, airport, etc. where they indicate the reason for retaining the suitcases and the money to be paid.
The Guardia Civil of Almeria recommends to avoid this type of scams:
NOT to pay anything.
Try to contact your relative or friend by other means than those provided in the messages received.
Always be wary of messages asking for money, where a relative or friend is in financial trouble, if it were true, they would call us directly.
In social networks, restrict access to our data only to our closest family and friends and do not publish sensitive information that could be used by third parties.
If we finally become victims of this type of scam, collect as much information as possible (messages, telephone numbers, documentation relating to the financial transfer) and report the incident to the Guardia Civil or other law enforcement agencies, informing them of what has happened.
The Guardia Civil, involved in improving the culture of cybersecurity, created the @ teams in 2021, which in addition to their investigative work pay maximum attention to the prevention of cybercrime, with the objectives of:
Strengthening the cyber incident response structure.
Ensuring attention to the victims of cyber-attacks.
Receiving complex complaints and resolving them as soon as possible to facilitate the investigation.
Advise and guide members of the Guardia Civil.
Carry out basic investigations at the time the complaint is filed.
Deploy early knowledge of such matters.
