A message, a four-digit amount and the usual number to call “to block everything”. These three ingredients are enough to trigger one of the most widespread scams of recent monthsthe one that uses the name of Nexi to convince the recipient to hand over their card codes themselves.
How the message is constructed
The text always follows the same pattern, it communicates that an expense has been authorisedoften a purchase and/or booking of a hotel, for a sum of around hundreds/thousands of euros. A telephone number to contact appears in the queue if the operation was not carried out by the owner. Nexi, on its website, describes this scheme as one of the most recurring among the reports received and explicitly places it among the fraud techniques active on the SMS channel, together with phishing, vishing, spoofing and SIM swap. By dialing the indicated number you come into contact with a fake operator (sometimes a person, other times a system that simulates their voice) who asks you to confirm card details, PINs or codes to block the presumed payment. In a more elaborate variant, the victim is even guided to download an app external to the official platforms and to bring the physical card close to the smartphone for a phantom change of the PINa step that allows scammers to authorize a real payment without your knowledge. This method is also documented by Nexi among its anti-fraud warnings.
Why it works: The technique is called smishing
The mechanism is called smishingportmanteau between SMS and phishing: in this the channel changes compared to the classic fraudulent email, but the objective remains identical, to push the victim to carry out an action through deception. The Postal Police has reconstructed its functioning in several cases analyzed by the Operations Center for Cyber Security, highlighting how the messages often arrive from numbers which, in the eyes of the smartphone, seem to continue a conversation already started with the bank or with the real institution. The high amount is not accidental: high enough to generate alarm, not so much as to be far-fetched.
How to distinguish the real SMS from the fake one
Nexi indicates some criteria for recognizing authentic communication. . Any link should be checked without clicking it, verifying that it actually refers to the official website (nexi.it). The telephone number to contact in case of doubt, the company reminds us, is only the one shown on its website or on the back of the card, and never the one written in the suspicious message.
What to do if the message actually arrives
The first move, simple yet overlooked, is . If you suspect that you have already provided sensitive data, Nexi offers a double channel: immediate blocking of the card via the Nexi Pay app or the personal area of the site, or a call to the Blocking Service on the toll-free number 800.15.16.16. The same portal collects reports of suspicious SMS and emails to the address signaling.phishing@nexigroup.comuseful for monitoring ongoing campaigns even when you haven’t fallen into the trap. Then there remains the road of complaintwe remember how the Postal Police makes the PS Online Commissariat portal available to report computer fraud attempts online, a step which in several cases has allowed the sums to be frozen in the beneficiaries’ accounts before they were withdrawn.
