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The apps to send and receive money from the mobile provide convenience and speed. However, scams by Bizum are also just a click away. It is not about security flaws of the platform, but about how cybercriminals take advantage of certain situations to deceive users. As we do not want you to be a victim of fraudulent requests for money or operations, we share the necessary information to avoid it.
Bizum: a platform for immediate mobile payments
Bizum is a Fintech platform that provides methods to send and receive money instantly. With only the phone number of the person who wants to pay or receive a payment, secure, easy and effective transfers are made in just 10 seconds. For your services, you only need:
- Select the bank, among which are the main financial entities in Spain.
- Follow the Bizum instructions, which must be downloaded and activated previously.
- Access and search for Bizum among the bank’s payment gateway options.
Is technological solution for Spanish bankinglaunched in 2016, saw record growth between 2020 and 2021. And its stats just keep rising:
- With an average of 16 sends per secondBizum has moved more than 26,000 million euros between individuals and 5.3 million payments between businesses in 2021.
- exceeds the 19 million bizumers or private users and the 15.4 million commercial users.
- As of December 2021, Bizum reported 794 million operations between individuals and 6.1 million in online commerce in 2021.
Most frequent Bizum scams
However, although it is a highly preferred payment platform in Spain, its use not without risk. Although it can certainly be considered safe and complies with both Spanish and European electronic payment regulations, it is important that you be aware of the following three situations to avoid falling into thescams by Bizum:
Pay someone you don’t know
Fraudsters take advantage of the rush to complete a transaction and click on the option to request money instead of sending. If you don’t pay attention to that detail and accept the operation, once it’s done you won’t be able to cancel it. Thus, you will be authorizing a transfer to another account and the scammer will accept your payment. Clever! You were tricked by a stranger with a “Reverse Bizum”.
Close the operation outside of Bizum or the bank applications
Carry out the entire process of your operations and communication with the other person or business in the bank’s application, internally. Only use the official chat channels of banking entities.
Under no circumstances negotiate a purchase or sale through WhatsApp, third party websites or agreeing to mobile calls. These are methods frequently used to scam.
Give data to strangers
Never provide your personal or bank details to strangersAlso, don’t send them by text, voicemail, email, or phone. Banking institutions do not request sensitive data by mobile or mail; They have their own payment gateways to avoid you having to provide sensitive data as a buyer, seller or simply in transfers.
Nor are they requested by official bodies, such as the Civil Guard or Social Security. If they contact you pretending to be officials to manage a payment, a refund or payments for procedures such as an ERTE through Bizum, you are being the victim of a scam attempt.
5 key tips to avoid falling intoscams by Bizum
- If someone asks for your account number, personal information, or other banking information, do not provide it or make any transactions. Neither Bizum nor your bank will ask you for this information.
- Do not use web addresses or URLs that come to you in messages to your mobile or by email. This is a common way of scamming Bizum through a mechanism known as vishing.
- Always check carefully if you are receiving an SMS from Bizum with a transfer or money request operation. This request must match the transaction you need.
- Do not accept operations of assumptions “reimbursement by Bizum” of people posing as officials.
- In case you know a victim of scams by Bizum, or if it happens to you, it is important report the incident to the police. They have mechanisms to develop investigations against cybercriminals. They have even managed to recover thousands of euros.
You already know what the advantages of this platform are, the tricks that cybercriminals can expose you to and how to protect yourself from Bizum scams. Remember that this service is designed to give you peace of mind, whether you are young or old, so that you can make or receive your payments in an intuitive and simple way.
