This warning about scam warnings is not a scam, but you should be prepared for such. Criminals have noticed an increase in the number of scam warnings, and they use the warnings as part of the actual scams.
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Fraud prevention manager at telecom operator DNA Ilkka Tuominen warns in the company’s bulletin about surprising contacts, where it may be announced that, for example, the security of a bank account has been compromised.
– There are, for example, cases where the customer receives information from a sender such as a bank that his security has been compromised and the money should be transferred safely, Tuominen states.
Two-step security account fraud
In December, we told you that in security account scams, which are becoming more and more common, it has been possible to send e.g. phishing messages to the victim first. In some cases, the victim may have been made to pay a small amount of money to the scammers under some pretext.
After this, the fraudster contacts the victim, pretending to be a police officer or a bank representative, for example, and informs the victim that he knows about the phishing message or other attempted fraud.
The scammer, who has gained the trust of his victim, then asks the victim to transfer the funds in his account to a so-called “security account”, assuring him that the money will be out of reach of the scammers there.
However, there is no security account, instead the victim worried about his money transfers his assets to the criminals’ account.
Also, watch out for phone calls
DNA’s Tuominen says that the tactic has been found to work among scammers. Finns are familiar with scam warnings, but they don’t necessarily know how to question their authenticity.
– The scam message may contain such a blatant lie about the security risk that the user clicks on the links before he has finished reading the message with thought, says Tuominen.
In some cases, scammers may also call their target. A phone call and a text message about the same made-up “security risk” therefore do not confirm what happened, but are attempts to approach the same fraudster.
Source: DNA