Will “sophisticated scam” steal money when clicking a link? Fact Check

A message spreading on social media warns readers of receiving messages about failed payments, and that this is a “sophisticated scam” where simply clicking the link will result in the recipient losing money.

MOSTLY FALSE

While the message is describing a real (albeit not new) type of scam, merely clicking a link isn’t going to result in a victim automatically losing money, as described in the warning. Additionally the warning has been dismissed by the City of London police, who it is frequently attributed to.

Examples of the message can be seen below.

Straight from the City of London Police fraud team – Extremely sophisticated scam going about this morning. Definitely Danske bank customers but possibly all banks. You get a message saying a payment hasn’t been taken eg O2,Vodafone or EE and to click here. As soon as you touch it the money is gone. They already have all your details and it’s the most advance scam the bank has ever seen. Pass this on to everyone. Please. This is from work this morning – they are being inundated with calls – thousands flying out of peoples accounts!

And

URGENT NEWS TO BE READ!
Straight from the City of London Police fraud team – Extremely sophisticated scam going about this morning, involving all banks. You get a message saying a payment hasn’t been taken e.g O2, Vodafone, 3, Giff Gaff or EE and to click here. As soon as you touch it your money is gone. They already have all your details and it’s the most advance scam the bank has ever seen. Pass this on to everyone please. This is straight from work this morning – the banks are being inundated with calls – thousands flying out of peoples accounts! Spread the word to your family and friends! Thank you.

It is important to note that while the above messages are inaccurate, they do attempt (albeit poorly) to describe a real type of scam, and recipients should always be wary of clicking on links on unexpected emails, SMS messages and social media messages (e.g. Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp.) These can often lead to spoof websites that can steal any information you enter into them (or they can try and download malware onto your device.)

With that said, the above messages are mostly false. Such messages claim that recipients need only to “touch” such messages sent to them to result in the recipient automatically losing their money. That’s not true and is technically highly improbable. Crooks would still need a victim to jump through further hoops before the victim compromises their security on the Internet. Merely opening or “touching” a message, or even clicking a link would not be sufficient for a scammer to steal money from that victim.

One way scammers trick victims into clicking dangerous links is to claim that a payment has failed and that the recipient needs to click a link to resolve the problem. It’s one of countless social engineering tricks crooks user to grab the attention of the potential victim. However, such scams require a victim to click a link in a message (which would then lead to a spoof or scam website) and then proceed to either enter sensitive information on that website or allow it to download harmful files onto their device. Only then would the victim be putting their security at risk. However the messages above ignore these steps and inaccurately claim a victim need only touch a message to be scammed.

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Also, is is worth noting that phishing scams – including phishing scams that use “failed payments” social engineering tricks – have been in common use for years. Despite the implication in the warnings above, this is new or trending type of scam. You can learn more about phishing scams and how to avoid them here.

And finally – given the inaccuracies of the messages above, it probably does not need saying that they did not come from the “City of London Fraud Team”. We could find no warnings issued by the City of London fraud squad that warn of such a scam. The City of London police denied the warning came from them.

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Yes, it’s true that you shouldn’t click on links on unexpected messages. However the warnings above make several false assertions or implications, including the claim that this is a new type of scam, (it’s not) – that the warning came from the City of London Police (it didn’t) – that it’s the most “advanced scam ever seen” (it isn’t) – and all you need to do is touch the message to have money stolen from you (you don’t) – so we rank these warnings as mostly false.