A call from someone in your contact list might not necessarily be from that person.Marcelo Nagy, a partner at STWBrasil and a cybersecurity expert, discussed this type of scam on the program *Encontro* with Patrícia Poeta. Criminals are using techniques that allow them to make calls displaying the same name and phone number as people already saved in the victim’s contacts.
In practice, this makes the approach much more convincing. The victim looks at the screen, recognizes the name of someone close to them, and answers without suspecting a potential scam attempt. From there, the criminals can employ various social engineering strategies to obtain information or prompt the victim to take a specific action.
During the discussion, Marcelo also highlighted a simple measure that can help verify the identity of the person on the other end: agreeing on a code word in advance with family members and close contacts. This way, upon receiving an unexpected call or message, one can verify the caller's identity before sharing any information or making a decision.
Click here to watch the full report.
