In their announcement, the police highlight concrete and recent examples of scams that Finns have fallen into recently. According to the authorities, two cheating techniques in particular have increased in popularity.
The police say in their announcement that various online scams are constantly increasing. Phishing using QR codes and the use of gift cards have recently come onto its radar.
Employees of companies have fallen for the first mentioned scams. According to the police, it is possible to circumvent the data security features of e-mails by turning malicious links into QR codes.
In the messages sent to the e-mail addresses of companies and organizations, they are asked to scan the QR code, for example under the guise of password expiration, two-step identification or a payment note.
However, the code takes you to a site where the victim is enticed to provide, for example, their bank ID or payment card information.
Katalia gift card scams
In their announcement, the police say that in gift card scams, card serial numbers are often sold on. In some cases, the victim is persuaded to buy gift cards from a store or kiosk, for example, and send the serial numbers of the gift cards to the criminals.
In scams carried out in this way, cards are often used that do not have to be redeemed in Finland. Gift cards for the game service Steam, Google, Apple and Paysafecard are common, for example.
The police warn of the increasing number of online scams. It published a list of recent fraud cases under investigation. Jenni Gästgivar, Susanna Kekkonen
Logging in to “OmaVero” took 80,000 euros from the victim
In the police bulletin, some of the online scams investigated by the Eastern Finland police last week have been highlighted. Last week alone, the police in Eastern Finland became aware of scams for almost 250,000 euros.
What they all have in common is that in each case the fraudsters have first approached the victim in some way, instilling trust. Trust has often been gained, for example, by posing as an authority or a bank representative.
In one case, the owner was tricked into paying a Finnish singer Jannika B’s more than 13,000 euros from the membership card to a German account. Another was tricked into buying Apple gift cards for more than 9,000 euros and handing over the gift card codes to the fraudsters.
An interested party had received a call in the name of Osuuspanki and transferred 70,000 euros to the criminals’ accounts. Another received a similar call from “Nordea”, and logging into a fake online bank using the instructions of a fraudster posing as a customer service took 5,000 euros from the account.
It is worth keeping in mind that even a caller pretending to be a policeman is not necessarily a real policeman. In one case, the true side of the matter was revealed only after the victim had transferred 50,000 euros to the caller’s accounts at the request of the “police”. One interested party, on the other hand, thought that the person who asked for money via text message had changed his phone number to his son, but the bank transfer of almost 8,000 euros ended up in the criminals’ accounts.
A message in the name of OmaVero, on the other hand, took more than 80,000 euros from one victim. The message contained a link through which online banking credentials were requested, and the person concerned did not guess the danger.
Source: Police