The Cuban content creator Arianna Rodríguez Campillo reported on Instagram how she was attempted to be scammed through a phone call where they announced the delivery of a package and asked for her banking information via Transfermóvil.
Arianna explains that the criminals called her home phone, gave her their full name, and told her that she would be receiving a shipment.
"They tell me, 'Ariana Rodríguez Campillo, you are going to receive a package,' and I am here to receive a package for my son, not for myself. I said, well, it seems real," she recounted.
The supposed delivery personnel identified themselves as "Claudia Sánchez Domínguez" and "Julio Lastre Pascual", assigned a fictitious package number, and indicated a delivery time between 10:30 and 10:45 in the morning.
The deception consisted of asking him to open the Transfermóvil app, enter a card number, and place the code "00005999" in the amount field. What would have actually happened is a transfer of 5,999 Cuban pesos, as the leading zeros have no numerical value.
A commentator on the video explained it precisely: "That's not the code. It's the amount they are going to scam you for because the zeros on the left don't count, meaning they were going to scam you for 5,999."
Arianna, who had already fallen victim to a previous scam for which a woman was arrested, recognized the trap in time.
"Today they wanted to scam me again, so I reacted, because experience is experience," she said. She responded directly to the scammer: "Listen, my dear, don’t be such a scammer and don’t call me again, because I’m not going to fall for your tricks."
The Cuban woman warned about the sophistication of the method: "They call you with a friendliness as if it were a company; I can't explain how well they do it, it feels like you’re talking to a radio host."
The comments on the video reveal that the scheme is widely known in Cuba and has affected many families. Several users noted that the scammers even call at four in the morning to landlines, and that the victims are always expecting a real package when they receive the call.
"They need to investigate with the courier agencies because all the people who go through this happen to be waiting for packages. They did it to me at 4 in the morning, they called my house, thank God I didn’t fall for it," wrote one of the commenters.
Another user pointed out a hypothesis that is common among the affected: "They know when they send us packages because they have hacked into the databases of the agencies in Miami."
On April 11, the Popular Savings Bank in Sancti Spíritus confirmed similar cases. Maité Hernández Gómez, head of Electronic Banking at that institution, was emphatic: The transfer option moves money from your account to another, it does not confirm payments.
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