UTE impersonation scam targets retirees in Uruguay

Police in Uruguay have issued an alert regarding a new social engineering scam targeting retirees and pensioners. Criminals are impersonating officials from the state-owned utility company, UTE, to offer fraudulent annual discounts on electricity bills.

The scammers use these fake benefits to build trust and guide victims through a series of steps on their mobile devices. The ultimate goal is to gain access to personal and financial information by instructing victims to log into banking applications, such as eBROU, while on the call. Once access is obtained, criminals attempt to perform unauthorized transfers or take out loans in the victim's name.

In one recent incident in José Pedro Varela, a woman managed to avoid financial loss by suspecting the fraud and immediately contacting her bank to block her account. Authorities emphasize that this is not a system hack of UTE, but rather a case of identity theft and social engineering. UTE reminds the public that it never requests passwords or financial information via telephone or WhatsApp.