Portugal’s new immigration agency AIMA (Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum) issued a warning last week that scam artists are sending out emails from the address “noreplyportalsef@saf-aima.pt” that “contain misleading information about alleged appointments at AIMA service locations, instructing users to appear at specific dates and hours.”
Considering the near impossibility of obtaining an appointment with AIMA these days, this is a smart scam indeed.
AIMA said that legitimate emails will originate from the “aima.gov.pt” domain, and, in some cases, from the “sef.pt” domain (AIMA took over from SEF, but that process isn’t complete).
Anyone receiving the bogus emails should “block the sender, mark the email as spam, and delete the message immediately,” according to AIMA.
The agency also recommends that those who suspect they’ve been the target of fraud report the incident.
Here’s all they offer in that regard:
“You can do so using the online forms for reporting cybercrime provided by the Judicial Police and the Public Prosecutor’s Office. Alternatively, you may report the incident in person at your nearest PSP or GNR police station.”
No links were provided for the online forms.
