Lisbon, Aug. 19, 2025 (Lusa) - The Attorney General's Office on Tuesday warned of fraudulent messages about alleged debts to the National Health Service (SNS) sent via Whatsapp by senders identified as “SNS24”.
"These messages are not sent by the SNS - National Health Service, nor by any other entity authorised by it to do so. Although they claim to originate from that public entity, this mention is false and its sole purpose is to convince victims to make undue payments to third parties - the sums of which the latter will steal," the Attorney General's Office warned today through its Cybercrime Office.
According to the note released by the Public Prosecutor's Office, the scam targets ‘indiscriminate recipients’ through the ‘massive despatch’ of messages via the “Whatsapp” platform, which invoke debts to the SNS and present ATM references for payment in a short space of time, five days.
According to the published note, ‘with this formulation, the criminal agents intend to lead to an urgent reaction to this message, precipitating the impulsive and ill-considered payment of the amount referred to in it’.
"For this purpose, national network phone cards are used, often with the calling number hidden, or pre-paid phone cards. The sender is always referred to only as “SNS24”," explained the Attorney General's Office.
The criminals request the ATM references presented for the payments from financial entities available on the market, which provide such services to third parties, and a financial intermediary based in the Netherlands, the company “MediaMedics B.V.”, has been identified in this scheme.
"The purpose of the perpetrators of these criminal acts is to deceive less attentive victims, convincing them to make payments that are not due. It is recommended that you carefully evaluate any emails of this nature that you receive. They should not be replied to, but should be reported to the Public Prosecutor's Office or the criminal police. Furthermore, messages of this kind should be ignored and not acted upon," warned the Public Prosecutor's Office.
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