Basically, a 41-year-old woman from Hennef had the right idea at the end of March when she received a suspicious text message on her cell phone, supposedly from her bank, and immediately deleted it.

However, the scammers persisted and an unknown male person called the 41-year-old two days later. He pretended to be a bank employee and asked why the Henneferin hadn't responded to the text message. After some back and forth, the woman received the text message again. She followed the link online and then entered her bank details on a suspected fake bank website. That meant the case was closed for them for the time being.
Two days later, a clerk at her actual bank contacted her and asked whether the 41-year-old had arranged an online transfer of 7,000 euros to a bank account in Lithuania. Of course, that wasn't the case and the transfer could be stopped.
It now turned out that seven transfers to Lithuania had already gone through and they had not been noticed due to the small transfer amounts. As a result, the 41-year-old suffered damage of around 1,500 euros.
Be careful of such text messages!
Police and consumer advice center NRW recommend:
- Be careful if you currently receive a text message that claims to be from your bank or tax office.
- False threats to visit bailiffs because of supposedly outstanding bills are also currently in circulation.
- If you have tapped the link in the message, do not enter your online banking access details on the page that opens!
- Do not allow installation of a new app!
Source: Rhein-Sieg District Police Authority
Related to the topic:
Federal Minister of Finance does not send SMS
SMS: Alleged error in parcel delivery by DHL
DHL: Beware of phishing via SMS
Austrian tax office: Warning of fraudulent SMS messages
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