Bizum, the payment service provider backed by 34 banking entities For almost a decade, he closed 2024 with More than 27 million users And having moved in transactions between users, in that year, more than 44,000 million euros in a little more than 1,000 million bizums. These operations have been mostly Payments between family and friends, online purchases, donations and charges and payments in lotteries and bets of the state. With this implementation, it is not surprising that the platform is subject to tactics by cybercriminals to cheat users and one of them is the call Inverse Bizum of which the Incibe has warned.
On a recent alert, the National Cybersecurity Institute explains that the Inverse Bizum is a fraud in which the scammer sends a Money request instead of a payment To the victim, that Thinking that it is the second accepts and loses a certain amount. He Maximum limit that allows bizum is 1,000 euros in a transactionalthough if the scam is repeated and the victim does not realize the trap, a maximum of € 2,000 in one day and 5,000 in a monththe operational limits that Bizum allows.
To illustrate it, the INCIBE quotes the real case of a user of an online sale platform that was contacted by an alleged buyer interested in his vehicle. This offered him a € 500 signal To reserve it and, without suspecting, nothing, the victim accepted the scammer bizum. Only it was not a payment, but a collection who authorized confidently and whose amount retired from his account. The Cyber of the Invice, realizing that he had not raised suspicions, tried to repeat the operation with a larger amount, but this made the victim suspect that he discovered then that I had not received € 500 but had delivered them.
How to identify an inverse bizum
INCIBE lists the alarm signals They can tell you that you are being a victim of an inverse bizum attempt:
- If someone contacts you through a sale platform, Care your profile carefullyits activity history and the time it has been registered on the site.
- Distrust If the other person insists that you accept a bizum payment without giving you time to review the detailsusing excuses such as urgency or lack of time.
- Suspicion If the buyer agrees to pay immediately Without asking questionswithout trying to negotiate and without showing interest in the product of the product, even if the price is high.
- Pay attention to messages that are incoherentpoorly written or with strange structures.
- Distrust of contacts from unknown numbers They offer you products or services with excessively low prices or too advantageous conditions.
How to prevent a reverse bizum
The preventive measures That you must have, according to the National Cybersecurity Institute, they are:
- Before acting, be sure to check If the message received corresponds to an income that you are going to receive or, on the contrary, to a payment request that they are making.
- If a known person asks you for money for Bizumverify your identity through another channel, as a phone call.
- Keep in mind that if you are the recipient of a bizumyou do not need to perform any action: money will be automatically entered in your account.
- Do not share personal or banking data With people you don’t know or who do not trust fully.
- Distrust of offers that seem too good to be true.
- Activate notifications In your bank application to be aware of any movement and Enable two steps authentication If available.
- Do not accept money requests from strangers.
What to do if you are a victim of an inverse bizum
In the case of having fallen into the trap, you must act quickly To try minimize the impact and Increase the chances of recovering money that you have sent. Follow these steps:
- Block the scammer number to prevent new contact attempts.
- Informs fraud to the sale platform where deception occurred, so that they can take measures and prevent other people from being victims.
- Gather all possible fraud tests: screenshots of messages, payment vouchers and any relevant data. You can use services such as ‘Witnesses online’ To certify the information. That is, a tool that allows, through digital signatures, to certify the existence of an internet content on a specific date and time.
- Files a complaint before the State Security Forces and Bodies, attaching all the documentation collected.
- Contact the bank associated with your Bizum accountdelivers the complaint and follow its instructions on the possible actions to try to recover the money.
- If the bank does not offer a solutionpresents a claim before the Bank of Spain To evaluate your case.