What to do if you receive a call or messages for extortion purposes?

“Scam attempt. Notice to the community. They called me by cell phone to describe everything I did, work, what I share on networks and what I did. They had sensitive information about my husband and they named him by name and surname… I had heard of this mode so I told them it was a scam, I hung up and blocked (…) They scare people into sending them money. Careful with this!”, This was the message of Monica Faour on her social networks, one more victim of the phone scams from which, thanks to his precaution, was not a victim.

In other cases, those who call to threaten or intimidate their interlocutors pass themselves off as members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) or any other organization related to illicit activities.

A few years ago, UNASE, a National Directorate specialized in the resolution of kidnapping and extortion casesindicated to the public that this type of fraud attempts were becoming more recurrent, as well as the increase in victims of it.

Prosecutor Édgar Escobar states that the first thing is to report the incident to the Prosecutor’s Office, in the La Merced building, located on Córdova and Víctor Manuel Rendón, where there is attention from 08:00 to 17:00.

In the Model Barracks (Avenida de las Américas) is the Flagrante Prosecutor’s Office, which is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

“This type of call has become common, because people are often afraid to reportbut they have the obligation, obviously, to approach the Prosecutor’s Office and file a complaint so that the Prosecutor’s Office can intervene and act immediately in coordination with the National Police, “says the official.

However, some citizens have filed complaints on social networks, as they go to prosecutor’s offices in various provinces and the authorities in charge at that time do not handle the proper complaint.

Victims and specialists have shared in some media how to deal with this type of situation. One of the keys is keep calm and don’t get carried away by fearwith this, you will be able to handle the facts with reason and calm, in addition:

– Write down the data that they are offering you in the call, if there is a way, place the call on loudspeaker and with the help of another cell phone, record the call in progress. In this way, later you may notice inconsistencies in the information and confirm that it is a scam.

– Do not give offers of payment or automatic transactions through web banking and in real time. Excuse yourself that you are not available at the moment (you have a work meeting, you are in class or somewhere, indisposed, etc).

– Call 911 immediately and ask UNASE for assistance, with the data collected, they will be able to solve it in a better way.

In these cases, also we have technology on our sidea tool used to identify numbers hidden or unknown that call us, their name is Truecaller.

What this App does is ask you for access to your contact base, in it you have the numbers identified by name. So, the more people in the world have Truecaller, the more numbers you can identify

Karina Astudillo, ethical hacker and specialist

In addition, every time someone who is not on your agenda calls you, Truecaller will identify who is calling you. This works both for hidden or private numbers and for open calls from other companies that you do not know who they are.

However, the specialist Astudillo insists on be cautious in advance, In addition to the extra tools, it is essential that:

– Limit personal informationWhat you share on social networks, not only yours, but also those of your relatives.

– Check who sends you requests of friendship or follow-up, identify if they are reliable profiles with the number of followers or friends in common. However, if you don’t know about it, it’s best to avoid it.

– Instead of putting your full name on your social networks, give a pseudonym, or just your first name without extra information that can make the victimizer reach you faster. (F)