Perpetrators set up new bank accounts in the name of job seekers
As the Lower Saxony police report, this scam is not entirely new, but is currently very popular with perpetrators. For their crimes, the perpetrators need, among other things, third-party bank accounts that you have access to and that do not lead to the perpetrators themselves.
For example, money laundering be carried out. As banks become more and more cautious when setting up bank accounts, perpetrators are forced to adapt to new technologies. The perpetrators are currently using the video identification process to set up new bank accounts online. To do this, of course, they do not legitimize themselves with their identification documents, but rather, for example, look for job seekers via online job advertisements who open these accounts (usually without any idea).
This is how the scammers operate
The perpetrators first place job offers on various Internet portals (e.g. eBay classifieds). The names of well-known companies and possibly real people (in our example “Tchibo”) are often misused. Alternatively, complete websites are even created by replicating the real websites with job offers and putting them online at a similar web address. The railway's application portal has already been copied, making it difficult for a layperson to recognize.
If a job seeker applies for a job offer like this, which is made exclusively online and is supposedly not supposed to be followed up with a personal interview later, then the perpetrators first demand personal and sensitive data from the job seeker:
– (scanned/photographed) ID card (both sides)
– Application documents/CV with photo
– Photo (selfie) with ID document in hand
– Bank details if applicable
The video identification process
Once the job seeker has sent the required documents to the email address provided, they will receive a happy message a short time later that the application would be considered. Since there is no personal interview, you now only have to briefly identify yourself using a video identification process. Occasionally it is even said that it is for the house bank. But everything is just to identify the person.
The perpetrators are now sending concrete instructions on how to go through the video identification process. For example, an app (legal and reputable video ID app) must be installed. The access data for personal identification is also transmitted.
The job seeker installs the app (e.g. N26) and carries out the procedure without knowing anything. The employees of the video identification process also ask, for example, why the identification is being made. If the job seeker does not realize that he is actually opening a bank account, then the trap has worked.
The perpetrators themselves present themselves in correspondence between the video identification process/bank and the job seeker. All documents required by the bank/video ID are always routed through the perpetrators so that the other two parties do not find out about it. The employees of the video ID process assume that someone wants to open an account here. The access data required for the identification process is initially sent to the perpetrators, who pose to the bank as the person who wants to open an account and who actually wants the job.
If the job seeker were to clearly state during the identification process that, for example, he had applied for a job offer and was in favor of identification, the employees in the process would stop the identification and point out the danger to the job seeker.
Now that the identification process has been completed, the perpetrators also receive the remaining access data for banking and can do whatever they want with the account.
The job seeker is then held back or ultimately not “hired”. He doesn't notice that there is a bank account in his name or only notices it when the police are investigating him. Just a few days and weeks are enough for the perpetrators to misuse an account for money laundering, for example.
If you have already sent your personal data (ID scan, CV with photo, selfie with ID...) to the perpetrators in advance, you should also report it to your local police. The perpetrators will continue to misuse this data, even if Video Ident is no longer available.
If the perpetrators use fake websites/web addresses, these often lead to the real websites afterwards or when accessing the domain. So that the potential victim is even more likely to believe that they are with the real employer. Only the fake email addresses of the domains are often misused for correspondence and the web addresses in the browser are redirected directly.
Examples of email traffic between perpetrators and job seekers:



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