Hundreds of thousands of euros have recently been cheated on Eastern Finns.
Police warn about telephone scams. Illustration. Mostphotos
Eastern Finns have been cheated in recent weeks of large sums of money, police report.
The scams have been made via phone, email and SMS.
In telephone scams, the caller has appeared as a bank clerk. He has said that in the name of the recipient of the call, several loan applications have often been made to respond.
The victims have given the fraudsters who have performed as bank clerks to their online banking ID, after which the accounts have been emptied.
For example, a Kuopio woman born in the 1960s was exported about € 50,000 after she had given her online bank ID to a cheater who appeared as a cooperative bank.
The call had originally come from a man who had appeared as a Norwegian Bank official. The man said that in the name of the woman, loan applications have been made to remove. To this end, the call was directed to the Osuuspankki, whose official person convinced the woman that it was a real bank clerk.
The Mikkeli woman, born in the 1950s, also received a call from a person who introduced himself as a Norwegian bank officer. The call progressed in the same way as for a Kuopio woman. A total of more than € 65,000 was exported from the accounts of a Mikkeli woman and this man. In addition, their name raised more than € 10,000 in their name.
Police also tell about a woman born in the 1970s, who responded to the call of a man who introduced the Osuuspankki official on Thursday last week. The woman gave her online bank ID to the man. The woman’s bank IDs also had access to some other people’s accounts and the scammers received a total of almost € 89,000. In this case, the assets cheated from the victim were recovered about € 40,000.
Also, the amounts stolen in other scams reported by police are tens of thousands of euros. The scammers have also performed as officials of other banks.
Do this if you become a scam victim
In e-mail and SMS scams, a message has been sent to the victim stating that he or she is receiving a tax refund, he or she has an unpaid fine, or an incoming post, or the operator is changing the customer’s SIM card.
There has been a link in the message through which the matter has been called for.
– These links that come with the messages should not be opened, but the messages should be deleted, says the Criminal Commissioner Juha Leinonen From the Eastern Finland Police Department in the bulletin.
He also emphasizes that no one on the phone, email, SMS or chat channels may be provided with credit card information or online banking.
– Police, banks or operators do not ask customers for bank IDs on the phone, email, SMS or intercourse.
If you suspect you have been a victim of a scam, you should contact your own bank as soon as possible and report a crime.
– The sooner the police get information about the scam, the better the police to stop the money transfers of the cheaters and to get a part or even a completely cheated on the amount of money, the police release instructs.