HAVANA TIMES — A few days ago, I clicked on a Facebook link advertising the sale of small propane gas cylinders. My sister had run out of gas a month earlier and had been cooking with charcoal ever since, so the ad caught my attention. There were several prices depending on the size of the cylinder. For example, a 20-pound gas cylinder cost $30, while a 45-pound cylinder cost $80.
I decided to call because I had done this on other occasions, and things had worked out very well. I had dealt with good, hardworking people who simply wanted to sell their products and deliver them to your home. I called, and an older woman answered. I asked her about the gas cylinders, and she told me they would deliver one to my house. She said she would prepare a contract and that I needed to have an empty cylinder to exchange for a full one.
Then she sent me a four-digit code and told me to write it down because it was the number assigned to my cylinder. She explained that the delivery truck carried many cylinders and that this would help speed things up.
I asked whether they would deliver it that very day so I could wait for it. She said yes, and told me not to leave the house, and asked for my information. I gave her my address.
We sat on the sidewalk waiting, but nothing happened. Then a friend called me and asked, “Are you making bank transfers and asking for cash?” This message was appearing in my WhatsApp status.
From that moment on, I began receiving numerous calls from friends asking whether I was requesting money. I tried to access my WhatsApp account, but I couldn’t. That’s how I discovered the scam.
It was a Cuban hacker using a Motorola phone, because that phone number appeared in the text messages my friends received. In other words, the scammers had also tried to access their accounts using that phone, but because my friends had good security measures in place, they were unable to do so.
I’m telling you this because I didn’t have two-step verification enabled, which is why they were able to steal my account. Here’s my advice to everyone reading this: protect your social media apps against every possible threat. Set passwords, PINs, and even install cannons if necessary! I didn’t know this could happen in Cuba, so I hadn’t taken precautions. I thought that here, where we’re living in the Stone Age, these kinds of things wouldn’t happen.
They stole my WhatsApp account that day to ask my friends and family for money. Fortunately, none of them fell for the trap. They know me well, and they found it very strange that I would ask for money so brazenly and without the slightest bit of courtesy.
I felt terrible because I thought that if any of my friends fell for the scam, it would be my fault. I’ve tried to log back into the app ever since that day, but I haven’t been able to.
The day after the theft, I thought about what I could do to stop this from happening. I called a number for Etecsa [Cuba’s only telecommunications company] that handles cybercrime cases, and a very helpful young woman answered.
She asked me, “Is this about a link advertising the sale of liquefied gas?” She explained that she had already received many complaints and asked me to provide my phone number as well as the scammers’ numbers, because there were three of them. She assured me that the case had been reported.
I told her I wanted to change my phone number. She replied that these people usually steal your account for only a few days, then leave it alone, allowing you to recover it. She explained that the first step was to enable two-step verification and set up a PIN, along with any other security measures I could, to prevent it from happening again. She said she understood how badly people in Cuba needed gas but advised me to be more careful next time.
However, the days keep passing, and I still haven’t recovered my account.
I went to the nearest telecommunications service center to change my number. They told me I could do so, but the numbers weren’t new; they were recycled numbers that had been recovered. That sounded strange and unreliable to me. The employee wouldn’t tell me where the numbers had come from, but I was determined to change mine.
The price was 250 Cuban pesos, but at that moment the service was unavailable because the national system had gone down. That’s what they call the network they use to operate.
The following morning, I returned, but the system was still down. I asked several questions because the scammers were using my account to defraud my friends and family. The employee told me that since the incident had already been reported, I had to wait and there was nothing else I could do.
I became a little upset because I wasn’t being offered any solution. I told the employee that we pay very high prices for Etecsa’s services, yet they still don’t protect us. If they already know the scammers’ phone numbers and there is no solution, then users are left completely helpless.
As of now, there is no immediate solution for cases like these. There were four people in the office facing the same situation. We have absolutely no security in this country. Before long, many of us may find ourselves unable to use this hugely popular application.
Everyone’s advice to me is to keep trying to access my account until I succeed and can enable the security features.
As I finish writing this article, I still cannot access my WhatsApp account.