On March 20, a scammer contacted a bank branch by telephone. He posed as the husband of a customer and stated that he had a new email address and mobile number following a divorce. The scammer asked to change that information in his personal file.
But the bank employee was alert. The caller’s strikingly strong Dutch accent set off alarm bells for her. She then contacted the wife of the real customer directly, which was completely out of the blue. The (real) customer himself also knew nothing. The couple filed a complaint with the Arro Ypres police zone, which started an investigation.
Double check
The scammer didn’t stop there. He later repeated the same method at different branches of the same bank. He then also tried to obtain information by e-mail. The email requested, among other things, user identification and activation codes. The email address used was very similar to that of the customer.
“These facts show that banks also have to take into account new forms of fraud,” said the Arro Ypres police zone. “Police and public prosecutors advise banks to double check requests for changes to personal data or contact details via the already known customer data and not via the new data communicated in the fake email.”
