State Police sound the alarm on Facebook: some impostors are allegedly trying to extort money from sellers of used items via email
Do you use the internet to put new or used items up for sale? Be careful, you could be scammed. To warn users against the new attempt of computer fraud was the State Police, publishing on Facebook a post about a new online scam.
According to what the force of public security says on the Facebook account "Agent Lisa" impostors are targeting sellers of some of the most popular e-commerce platforms. The goal of cyber criminals is always the same: to extort money from poor victims. And despite the fact that the technique used is trivial, the number of users who risk running into the new scam is very high. The scammers, in fact, pretend to be interested in the product on sale and ask unsuspecting sellers some personal data, including the IBAN code. And once obtained, the scam attempt is launched.
How the scam works
The impostors pretend to be buyers from the Ivory Coast. In the scam attempt, according to the post published by the State Police, ran into a commissioner, who had put on sale for 100€ her garbage disposal. The agent had been contacted by a woman who, in order to make the proposal even more credible, had also sent by email her identity card. An obviously false document. Fortunately the police officer did not fall into the trap. But what would have happened if, instead, she had taken the bait? She would have received a second email with which she would have been informed that in the Ivory Coast it would not be possible to make transfers for less than one thousand euros.
As proof, the impostors would have attached to the email message also a transfer in the name of the seller for the amount of one thousand euros and would have asked the victim of the deception the restitution of 900 euros, that is the difference between the cost of the garbage disposal and the amount paid in the payment. And here, therefore, completed the deception.
How to protect yourself
The fraud resorts to a simple and little elaborated technique, but able to hit many people. The suggestion is to be wary of people who ask you for money via email. Always. If you have put on sale an object, demand to be paid according to the modalities foreseen by the site.