The Confederation of National Chambers of Commerce, Services and Tourism reinforced its national strategy for the prevention of digital fraud, extortion and impersonation of authorities, with the aim of providing concrete tools to businesses to protect their assets against criminal modalities that evolve rapidly.
The action covers the network of 258 Chambers distributed throughout the 32 entities of the country. The most worrying modalities are intimidating phone calls, messages with fraudulent links and the impersonation of inspectors or officials who demand deposits, confidential information or undue payments from entrepreneurs and family businesses.
Given this scenario, Concanaco established four response protocols for its affiliates: do not give in to threats or pressures; do not make deposits or share confidential information; hang up and verify any requirement through official channels; and report to 089 or, in emergencies, to 911.
Octavio de la Torre de Stéffano, president of Concanaco Servytur, was direct about the dimension of the problem: "Digital security is already part of economic security. Today protecting a business also means protecting it from deceit, impersonation and fraud that arrive by a call, a message or a screen." And he added: "Fear is the tool of the criminal; prevention, information and reporting are the tools of citizens. An informed business is a protected business."
In addition to the protocols, the Confederation promotes cybersecurity workshops, extortion prevention and detection of false inspectors to strengthen the response capacity of businesses. The actions are part of the National Route of the Pact for Prosperity, Economic Justice and Security, in coordination with public security institutions and justice administration.
From the perspective of next+, Concanaco's movement indicates that digital fraud is no longer a threat exclusive to large corporations with cybersecurity departments. Family businesses, micro and small businesses, are frequent targets precisely because they have fewer resources to detect and respond to these threats. A call from a false inspector, a malicious link sent by message or the pressure from someone impersonating an authority can represent losses that, for a business of that scale, are difficult to absorb. The training and simple protocols that Concanaco is distributing through its network of chambers have a significant potential impact because they reach businesses where institutional cybersecurity programs rarely penetrate.