Authorities gave details of how cybercriminals operate to access bank accounts and alerted the population to avoid being a victim of scams.
José Canel, deputy director of the Specialized Directorate of Criminal Investigation (Deic), declared this Thursday, June 4, that he was commissioned to respond to a summons from a group of deputies to address the increase in cybercrime.
He added that, unfortunately, many citizens have been scammed or have had their bank accounts breached, which implies the loss of money due to transactions carried out through various platforms.
He indicated that they have statistics of requests made by the Public Ministry through the Cybercrime Investigation Department.
Canel added that they have worked on 16 complaints directly with the National Civil Police (PNC) and have issued more than 178 reports at the request of prosecutors related to that crime.
According to the official, some people compromise their own data by clicking on unknown links, which violates your information. These personal data and passwords are then used to carry out banking transactions, and many victims lose their money.
He explained that criminals use pages that pretend to be official ones and contact victims making them believe that they are legitimate sites.
He warned that cybercriminals have evolved their methods to deceive victims, who in many cases do not realize the risk to their personal data.
He highlighted that several institutions and the banking sector alert users to protect their data; For example, they recommend not entering suspicious web pages.
Canel recommended users be careful with their information, verify who they contact and confirm that it is the correct person or company before making any transaction.
Héctor Aldana, representative of Vamos, indicated that this June 4 they met with representatives of the Bank of Guatemala, the Superintendency of Banks and the National Civil Police (PNC), due to the increase in complaints about digital scams.
He said that there are numerous cases in which credit cards are cloned or users receive messages on their cell phones through which data is stolen, which causes their accounts to be emptied.
According to the deputy, the citizen lacks protection, because when the affected person reports what happened, the bank asks him if he has insurance and, if he does not have it, unfortunately nothing can be done.
According to the legislator, both the Bank of Guatemala and the Superintendency of Banks are limited by the scope of their powers. He added that, although victims file complaints about these scams, institutions carry out internal investigations and request information from banks, but the results are never made public.
He added that the banking system has the ability to track stolen funds, although it is unknown where they end up.
He indicated that this matter requires preventive actions and criminal prosecution. In that sense, the PNC has around 25 ongoing investigations and has carried out raids of different natures; However, Guatemalans continue to be victims of these scams.
He added that the objective of the meeting was to determine what standards should be created or improved to foster collaboration between financial entities for the benefit of users seeking answers.
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