Mobile instant messaging services like WhatsApp and company, they have revolutionized the way we communicate. By adding the convenience of instant messaging that became so popular on computers at the turn of the century to the constant connectivity provided by cell phones and the constant improvements they experience, we get the preferred option for more and more users every day. Most of your communications.

That’s the problem not everyone uses them with good intentions. For example, in recent weeks, a type of scam that you’ve probably seen if you’re a Twitter user has become popular. The scammer sends a message to any number (from a person who doesn’t know him, yes), pretending to be someone close but without identifying himself and who is physically very far away, and asks the victim to try to figure out who it’s from .

In the cases that we can see on Twitter, funny replies have become popular to tease the scammer, but in cases where the victim believes that they identify someone (relative, friend, etc.) who lives outside the country, the scammer, who immediately assumes this identity and then tells the victim that he wanted to surprise her by coming to Spain (or the country where the victim is located); but he had a problem at the airport.

From here you can already imagine a rather bizarre story, which of course ends, in the need to send a certain amount of money to a specific recipient. In theory, the defrauded person will receive packages invoiced by the fraudster, which contain mobile phones, laptops, digital cameras… all of course the latest generation and worth much more than the amount to be sent.

The popular and always entertaining YouTuber and streamer Rimembah received this news and decided to document it in his unmistakable style, an attempted scam from start to finish. A video that, in addition to the first and obvious funny read, documents the step-by-step procedure these scammers use. Without a doubt, this is a video whose viewing seems more than recommended.

It’s always a positive thing that these types of scams become visible, as it increases the chances of potential victims they are already aware of it and therefore do not fall into it.

The problem is that aThis particular scam is one of the most famous, but not the only one. There’s another one that’s been around for a while that’s worth noting and of course bringing our circles to the attention of, with a particular focus on older people who have lower levels of digital skills as they’re prime targets for this type of attack. This is another of the main problems of the digital divide.

Just a few hours ago, the musician Piter G thread on Twitterin which documents with real images (at least in theory) WhatsApp scam attemptagain using identity theft, although in this case providing indirect and partial identification in the hope that the other party, the victim, will fall into the trap and identify the fraudster as the person they are pretending to be.

From that moment again, and as you can already imagine, the story of the involvement of MrFor the victim to send money to the scammer.

I am aware that in the eyes of many, probably most, of the people who read this article, it will be seen as a kind of fraud too gross to ever fall into such a trap. And it’s true that it may be obvious to us (myself included), butor we must forget that this type of fraudsters are looking for victims with little digital skills and therefore more prone to fall for this type of fraud.

Of course, we must add the personal circumstances of each of them. Just as we do not process phishing banking entities with which we have no relationship, as well as those we use, each person’s circumstances can give this type of fraud more credibility.

To give one example in relation to the first of the two frauds mentioned here, the fraud of a distant relative or friend, any immigrant will, by definition, have many loved ones far away in another country and maybe even on another continent. This circumstance alone makes him a person with more options to get into the scam. And if they are also older people with little digital skills and very little or no knowledge of cyber security, we already have a potential victim.

So, and as a personal advice, this news has of course its informative function, but also a reminder that if you have people nearby, they have put the profile, and if you haven’t done so yet, take a few minutes to warn them about this threat. With any luck, they’ll never end up in this situation, but if not, you’ll certainly avoid a good deal of resentment.