Online fraud is on the rise in Cuba amid growing e-commerce

The number of online scams in Cuba is on the rise as fraud continues to skyrocket e-commerce and unique features of currency exchange policies that drive people to purchase dollars on the black market, the regime-controlled press warned on Thursday.

These scams often involve requesting card details, including recent transactions PIN According to the report prepared by Caribbean Channel. Another common technique is to spoof mobile payment service confirmation messages to trick victims into making a transfer after confirming a previous operation that never took place.

The report recommends minimizing the risk of these scams by not sharing personal information with strangers on social media or buying and selling groups and not making transfers through unverified links. “Please note that confirmation messages from services such as Transfermóvil they are never sent from private numbers and do not allow you to receive or make calls,” he explains.

Many cases come to light thanks to reports from those affected on social media. In April, a Cuban woman reported that she was the target of a fraud attempt while trying to sell convertible currency (MLC) in an online transaction. She revealed that the woman tried to scam her by sending a photo with her card and claiming that she would transfer the national currency first, asking for the complainant’s telebanking details.

After the alleged transaction was made, the confirmation number came from the scammer’s number, not from Transfermóvil app. “It immediately caught my attention and I checked my card balance; she never transferred any money,” she said. This person assured that he never tipped off the MLC and published the report to prevent others from suffering a similar scare.

In May, the official press warned Cubans about an increase in recent days in the number of balance scams using text message techniques in which an unknown caller, after a friendly conversation, admits to having made an error in transferring a certain amount of money CUP to another number and kindly ask you to send the money back. If the user follows the recommendations, he will immediately become a victim of fraud.

The message confirming the transfer comes from a private number, which deviates from the usual protocol Etecsa, a state-owned telecommunications company that sends confirmations through an official channel. This method of fraud is not new. In April, Etecsa warned against such fraudulent practices. We recommend checking recent transactions via Transfermóvil to confirm the authenticity of each transfer you receive.