Be careful with the sms from 88800, we will tell you why

More than 90 users have reported for some time having received an SMS from 88800. The content of the text message says that we are beneficiaries of a universal credit bond granted by the Banco de Crédito de Perú, also known as BCP. Other users claim to have received a message that allegedly notifies of the approval of the hiring of a credit card. But, what is really hidden behind these types of messages? We see it below.

I have received an SMS from 888000, who is it?

“I received a message saying that I am a beneficiary of the universal bonus, but I have checked and there is no deposit”, “I got a message that says to go to the BCP with my card to collect the universal bonus”, “It is clear that it is a scam ”… These are some of the testimonies that we have been able to find on the Internet around the number 88800. What is really behind this supposed SMS from BCP?

As several users have confirmed, this is an alleged scam attempt. The financial institution itself has recently affirmed this in a publication through the official Twitter account of Banco de Crédito de Perú. Apparently, the message in question gives us a series of instructions to supposedly "extract" the credit granted from an ATM. What is really done is to provide the PIN code and the bank account number to the thieves to later make money withdrawals without our consent. The message reads as follows:

From the bank itself they recommend blocking any SMS to avoid falling into scams, as can be seen in the following publication:

It may be the case that the SMS contains some type of link that takes us to a supposed page of the BCP. Most likely, the linked page does not belong to the bank and is a mere gateway to get access to online banking (email, ID, password…).

How to block messages from 88800 and other spam numbers

Blocking messages on iOS and Android depends, generally, on the version of the operating system that our mobile has. The process is as simple as going to the Messages or SMS application. Inside the inbox we will select the SMS whose sender we want to block. Then, we will click on the three points in the upper right corner and finally on Options.

Now the application will show us an option with the name of Block and mark as spam that will allow us to veto the reception of SMS from the sender in question. If we click on the option Add people we can add as many phone numbers as we can think of. Ideally, introduce small variations of the 88800. For example:

• 88800
• 88801
• 88802
• 88803
• 88804
• 88805
• 88806
• 88807
• 88808
• 88809

List of suspicious SMS identified by tuexpertomovil.com

• 603828305
• 900649474
• 900820848
• 900820123
• 900100247
• 900900078
• 610928472