A man in his twenties is suspected of scams carried out in the name of S-bank – Victims lost more than a million

A man in his twenties is suspected of frauds carried out in the name of S-bank. He has been in custody since December. OUTI LAKE

Helsingin Sanomat says, that a man in his twenties, who has been imprisoned since December, is suspected of scams and frauds sent in the name of S-bank. The matter emerges from the completed preliminary investigation by the police.

The man is suspected of more than 400 serious payment instrument frauds, where the perpetrator has targeted S-bank’s customers with phishing scams. According to the police, the victims lost more than one million euros to the perpetrator.

The young man has sent messages to his victims that have directed them to fake websites resembling real online banks. The victims have provided the site with their online bank ID, which allowed the suspect to gain access to the victims’ online bank.

Made abroad

The servers used for phishing were located in Moldova and the crimes were committed from abroad. The Southwestern Finland police investigated the matter together with the Moldovan authorities and Europol.

– The same young man was also involved in money laundering crimes reported in the capital region, where the predicate crimes were bank fraud, team leader of the cybercrime investigation team of the Southwest Finland Police Department, criminal police constable Jami Toivonen tells.

Currently, the perpetrator is suspected of a total of 421 crimes, which, according to Helsinki news, corresponds to the entire payment instrument fraud statistics of last year.