A message that seems to come from Poste Italiane, the smartphone puts it among the real messages of Poste: but this message is a scam that threatens to drain our postal accounts. This phishing attack has been stealing thousands of euros from postal current accounts in recent weeks.
The postal account scam, how to recognize phishing
The scam appears to be widespread. We didn’t receive it personally, but for example Alessandro Longo of Il Sole 24 Ore says he received a message saying: “Dear customer, an expense of 284 euros has been requested, if it’s not you, follow the link”. The amount varies from user to user.
At the link there is a page similar to that of Poste which asks for access data and mobile phone. The scammers ask you to enter them to stop the fake transfer, which in reality has never been done. The real transfer is what they will do to our detriment and to their benefit if we fall for the deception.
In fact, scammers call immediately to get the one-time password that arrives via text message and with that they have everything they need to make a bank transfer. Some of the deceived report withdrawals from 5 to 15 thousand euroswhich customers can lose forever.
To recover them, it is often necessary to resort to the decisions of the Cassation and the Financial Banking Arbitrator. According to the regulations, the bank can deny the refund only if two conditions are met: demonstrates that you have implemented the appropriate security measures and if there is willful misconduct, fraud or gross negligence on your part. And having adopted a two-factor confirmation code (the one that the scammers asked you for), there is a risk that they will not refund.
One way to defend yourself is prevention. As the Post itself recalls, never request in any way (email, sms, social network chats, call center operators, post office and fraud prevention) and for any reason: access credentials to the www.poste.it website and Poste Italiane Apps, your card data, secret codes to authorize transactions. Delete emails and text messages that ask us for these things.
And if we have already fallen for the scam, all is not lost. We dispute the charges through official bank channels and possibly open a dispute. A refund is not guaranteed, but it’s worth a try.