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Banknote thieves

Похитители дензнаков

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Struck with fear

Read: 8424 Comments: 1 Rating: 43

Thursday, May 19, 2016

The level of fear people experience is directly proportional to how threatened they feel. The more frightened people become, the greater the danger they perceive themselves to be in.

Fear prevents us from thinking rationally. Depending on an individual’s psychological makeup, fear can fuel feelings of intense agitation, anxiety, fright and even panic. Yet, in a calm state we are capable of sober reasoning.

Criminals are very good at exploiting people’s fears to make money with SMS phishing.

Imagine that you receive a text message notifying you that your bank card is blocked. For more information, call ***. Taken by surprise, you will probably dial the number without considering the possibility that the message hasn't been sent by your bank and that the phone number belongs to criminals. Your customer service agreement with your bank probably does not include a clause about SMS communications or, if it does, you probably disabled SMS notifications yourself.

However, if a person gets frightened and loses their ability to think clearly, they will dial the number and thus make the first mistake. And right after that comes mistake No. 2—they start talking to a criminal. Here people often make a third mistake and divulge all their credit card information and the secret word that unlocks their card. This is exactly what the attackers need.

The Anti-virus Times recommends

If you get such a message, call your bank immediately to determine why you received the SMS. Even if you know for sure that your bank doesn't send SMS notifications, you’ll make the bank aware of the phishing attack and help other people keep their money safe.

In no event should you dial the number found in the message—the SMS is most certainly a scam. Only contact your bank via the phone number specified on the reverse of your credit card. If the card has been stolen or you don't have it at hand, go to the nearest bank branch or find the phone number on the bank's site. Under the circumstances, do not contact the bank any other way.

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