Overview
- The Superintendencia de Banca, Seguros y AFP (SBS) issued a public alert warning that the seasonal gratificación payouts have prompted a surge in attempts to steal funds and urged workers to strengthen security habits.
- SBS says criminals now prefer social engineering over hacking and highlighted five common scam types: phishing (fraudulent emails), smishing (fraudulent SMS), vishing (fraudulent calls), pharming (fake websites) and wangiri (short international calls that prompt a return call).
- The regulator gave concrete prevention steps including never sharing personal keys or OTPs, pausing before clicking links or answering urgent requests, enabling transaction alerts, avoiding public Wi‑Fi for financial operations, and confirming sites use HTTPS.
- Alfonso Villanueva Velit, the SBS’s lead financial education analyst, urged people to stop and verify messages before responding, saying a short pause to check a call or link is the best tool to avoid losing money.
- SBS is promoting its Aprende con la SBS platform to teach workers how to spot scams and the agency says shifting the defense to user awareness could cut seasonal losses and reduce fraud victimization.