We increasingly have to do more procedures online. Treasury, Social Security, DGT… nowadays, practically everything is done through the Internet. The truth is that the respective organizations have worked hard, and invested a large amount of money, so that anyone can access their digital headquarters without problems. And, of course, all these procedures and services are carried out completely free of charge. However, there are scammers who, of course, seek to take advantage of people and offer these same services that are free, paid.
Request or renew the European Health Card, access the work history report, consult pensions or make an appointment are just some of the services that Social Security allows us to do through the Internet. And all of them are totally free.
Whether due to rush or lack of knowledge, it is very easy to reach all types of websites that offer us to carry out all types of Social Security procedures. The website seems official, and it asks us for all our personal information to identify ourselves and be able to carry out the procedure. When we reach the end, we are about to carry out the corresponding procedure and, suddenly, they ask us to pay a “fee” to obtain it. We may think that this procedure has a cost, and we pay. Well we have a problem.
Social Security procedure scams
The Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration reminds on Twitter (X) that all Social Security procedures that can be carried out are totally free procedures. That is, they will never charge you for them, neither for issuing a document nor for making any query.
Attention to the citizens of @inclusiongob
@incluinfo
👁️👁️Social Security electronic services have NO cost for the citizen. None.
⚠️If you enter a website and they want to charge you for:
✔️European Health Card
✔️Quotes
✔️Work life report
✔️Or any other🔴🔴#NoPiques. It’s not us https://t.co/QZ5oInyE7a
February 27, 2024 • 07:02
5
0
This notice comes because several groups of scammers are creating fake websites that imitate Social Security in order to deceive users. These websites are positioned at the top of Google so that, when the user performs a search, they enter the fake website thinking it is the original.
We must take into account the dangers of this, as we are not only giving our money to hackers, but we are also providing them with a large amount of private, very sensitive information, which they can use to carry out, for example, impersonate our identity.
Learn to identify fake websites
Although these fake websites are usually detected relatively early, and the browser’s anti-phishing filters usually remedy them, it never hurts to know how to detect these fake websites and avoid falling into the trap.
The first thing we have to do is carefully analyze the URL of the website we have visited. If we detect a suspicion (a changed letter, a strange symbol, etc.), it is better to be suspicious. We also need to analyze the HTTPS certificate to see who owns it and who issued it. Even another clue that can help us detect, and avoid, a fake website is the cookie message, something that scammers usually do not pay attention to.
When in doubt, always be suspicious, and ask for help from another person, who knows more about the subject, to help us make sure that we are visiting the original website.
