Criminals pretended to be representatives of the office of state deputy Rafa Zimbaldi (Cidadania-SP) with the aim of carrying out scams and publicizing false events. A police report was registered last Monday (13) by the parliamentarian.
Zimbaldi was alerted to the scam by some victims and went to the Civil Police to report fraud and embezzlement. The deputy’s office confirmed the information and said that he is cooperating with the investigations.
“A supporter of our mandate, for example, received a call from criminals and was induced to access a code. In this contact, the scammers identified themselves as being from my office and that they were dealing with a political event. Upon realizing that he had fallen for a scam, the victim contacted the police and informed us of what had happened,” said the deputy.
The victim mentioned by the parliamentarian is a 60-year-old man who was targeted by fraudsters. He received a code, via WhatsApp, from a supposed advisor to the parliamentarian. After the scam, he noticed that contacts that were stored in his address book disappeared and one of the criminals silenced incoming calls.
According to Zimbaldi’s office, the Police believe that the main targets of the coups are their voters and supporters.
How scammers acted
The scammers called people close to the parliamentarian, identifying themselves as members of his cabinet at the Legislative Assembly of the State of São Paulo (Alesp).
During the first contact, the victim is induced to confirm participation in a supposed political event, using a code sent via WhatsApp.
The code reaches the victim’s cell phone and, in one click, clones the messaging application. This action allows the criminal to take control of the account and commit crimes such as stealing data, accessing emails and other personal accounts, and even making financial transactions in bank accounts.
*Under supervision
This content was originally published in Criminals pretend to be from the SP deputy’s office to carry out scams on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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