With the onset of the health crisis, scams and frauds have increased considerably. According to the National Consumer Service (Sernac), during May it received 40 citizen alerts that relate to this type of crime through the web, due to the increase in purchases and online procedures resulting from confinement.
Also, frauds are becoming more sophisticated and designed to easily deceive people. In this pandemic context, there has been a substantial increase in online ID fraud worldwide, up 37%, according to Cloudflare, a web security provider. This happens because it is easy for cybercriminals to take advantage of fear and confinement to create credible scams and frauds with supposed state aid.
This is an alert for companies and institutions to care more than ever about the vulnerability of their own and their customers’ data, especially in a telework context, where there is a lot of important information that is handled in workers’ homes without a proper protocol for disposal.
A study on identity fraud in Chile, conducted by experts in the prevention of the Brands Fellowes – a manufacturer of office accessories and technology worldwide – and Davis Office – pioneers in the marketing of office items in the country – revealed that in 2018 some companies discarded much of the sensitive information of their customers. With this way of acting, private data such as full name, RUT, date of birth, address, mailings, telephones, and even current accounts were left in unknown hands, leaving people exposed to being victims of forgery of documents or impersonation.
In the current context it is facing, it becomes more urgent to protect confidential information, to prevent criminals from using it for the entry and control of bank accounts, to apply for million-dollar credits, to facilitate organized criminal and terrorist activities, among other actions.
Frauds committed with printed information leave fewer traces to legally defend the victim, so it is key to take preventive measures. One of the solutions that exist today, are the destroyers of automatic Documents Fellowes, for personal use and for companies, their security technology allows that confidential documents cannot be extracted from the machine until their total destruction is complete.
