Another scam using the name and logo of theINPS. The pension institution warns that several users have received an email with an attempt to Phishing, the most classic of computer scams.
In essence, the e-mail message looks like a communication from the INPS (complete with a header), but invites people to click on a link. The unfortunate who follow this indication find themselves on a page with a menu containing the names of the main Italian banks. Users are thus invited to select their credit institution and then to provide their banking credentials. At that point the scam is complete and the perpetrators of the scam have access to the savings of the victims.
In a note published on its website, INPS points out that these emails point “to fraudulently steal personal data and those relating to credit cards".
There is also a bait to make everything more credible: the e-mail message in fact speaks of an unspecified "transfer not successful” due to out-of-date data within the system. And just to solve this problem, which in reality does not exist, the scammers make the recipients of the communications believe that it is necessary to provide their bank details.
“We therefore invite all users to be wary of such communications – remarks INPS – ea ignore emails proposing to click on a link to obtain alleged payments from the Institute".
In general, no bank, body or public or private institution ever asks its users or customers to communicate their credit card number or other bank details via email. E-mail is not a secure channel for transmitting data of this kind, which must be managed by armored systems. Consequently, all (and we emphasize all) emails containing messages of this type are attempts to phishing, i.e. scams, which it would be good to report to your e-mail provider.
The social security institution recalls that “information on INPS benefits can only be consulted by accessing directly from the portal www.inps.it – concludes the note – and that INPS, for security reasons, never, under any circumstances, sends emails containing clickable links”.
