Intensive cooperation between the police and Marktplaats has reduced the number of cases of payment request fraud by 76.5 percent in two years. This was reported by the police on Friday.
An example of payment request fraud is when a seller on Marktplaats receives a link via WhatsApp from a so-called potential buyer to make a small payment or verification of, for example, 0.01 euros. The ‘buyer’ says he wants to check whether you can be trusted. However, the link in this fake payment request does not go to the bank’s website, Tikkie or iDeal, but to a phishing site where the so-called buyer can watch when the seller enters the bank’s login details. With those login details, the ‘buyer’ can make payments from the seller’s account.
These types of fraud primarily take place on sales platforms such as Marktplaats, Vinted and Facebook Marketplace. In most reports of payment request fraud, 90 percent in 2020, the contact originated via Marktplaats, according to the police. Conversations between ‘buyer’ and seller are then moved with an excuse, often to WhatsApp. This makes it impossible for the platform to intervene. The total amount of damage was between 500,000 and 800,000 euros per month.
Technical measures
The cooperation led, among other things, to technical measures that have been implemented on the platform, as a result of which, for example, telephone numbers of private users are no longer automatically visible when a new advertisement is placed. “Users of the platform now have to consciously choose to make the telephone number visible and are required to go through an information text about this form of fraud. In addition, we have informed millions of users about this form of fraud via e-mails from users and notifications,” says a spokesperson for Marktplaats.
‘Important to report’
The police do indicate that it is necessary for people to report the crime. “We often see that people do not report the crime out of shame or ignorance. It is extremely important that victims do, because it is precisely through these reports that we get a picture of a phenomenon and we can set the right priorities in detection, prevention and disruption,” says Sylvia Laurensse of the cybercrime team of the Limburg police.