In a typical scam call, the criminal calls an unsuspecting victim. However, the Cybersecurity Center warns that the caller can also end up a victim.
The Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom’s Cybersecurity Center warns in his weekly review scams where criminals pose as technical support.
It says it has received reports last week of cases where a criminal who spoke English has appeared on the phone as a Facebook or Paypal technical support person.
– We know of cases where the user has used a search engine to search for customer service information, but the search results have led the user astray. Instead of providing proper customer service, the user has unknowingly ended up calling criminals directly, the Cyber Security Center warns.
– In the cases we are aware of, the informants have lost thousands of euros of money to criminals, it continues.
Do this now
If you have lost money or handed over your bank ID to outsiders, the Cyber Security Center advises you to contact your bank immediately.
– If programs have been installed on the machine at the request of fraudsters, the machine must be taken to service to be checked and the programs removed.
How to avoid calling criminals?
In the same way that it is recommended not to go to an online bank through Google or another search engine, it is also not recommended to do so when looking for customer service contact information, unless you can make sure that you have definitely ended up on a genuine site.
– The contact information of the customer service should be found by going to the service’s website via a well-known link, for example by memorizing the addresses of the most important services, the Cybersecurity Center warns.