Warning if you are asked by phone or SMS to confirm transactions as part of your online banking!
But first let's talk about the perpetrators' approach: The new scam must have been preceded by a classic phishing process. A phishing email, for example, that causes the recipient to reveal personal data such as online banking access data, passwords or transaction numbers.
Internet fraudsters usually lure their victims with fictitious and fake emails and lead them to professionally designed websites. There you should enter your access data for online banking. Fraudsters can misuse the stolen personal data and use the faked identity to conduct business online in the name of the injured party.
Example of a phishing email and websites that look like those of the Sparkasse or the Sparkasse customer service
But now the perpetrators are going even further
The fraudulently obtained access data is used to apply for a digital credit or debit card from the victim's financial institution. When setting up this, a one-time authorization from the customer is required, which depends on the bank's respective authorization methods (e.g. Push TAN). To obtain this authorization, the fraudsters either call and pretend to be employees of the financial institution or send an SMS. So-called “call ID spoofing” is used for the calls so that the number of the respective bank actually appears on the display and no doubts arise. The callers use a pretext to get the bank customers to carry out an authorization. For example, this should confirm an update.
From this point on, the perpetrators can use the digital card until it is blocked. In the known cases, they do this, for example, to make purchases and either use the purchased goods themselves or resell them. The financial institution initially gets the impression that this is done by the customer themselves.
The police warn against these scams and therefore emphasize:
No financial institution will request confidential information over the phone, email or text message or do anything that requires authorization in your bank's app.
Tips on how to protect yourself from scammers:
- If you are contacted by a supposed representative of your bank and pressured to provide an update, for example, you will immediately become suspicious. Contact your bank immediately using the usual contact details and question the measure.
- Do not transmit personal or confidential information (such as passwords or transaction numbers) via email. Never follow a link to log into your online banking. Only access this using the method you know.
- Always make sure who you are dealing with. For links and websites, check the address bar in your browser. You should become suspicious if there are even the slightest deviations.
- Do not click on the link provided in an email sent.
accessing the pages specified in the email - Only follow requests in emails to download programs if you
can find the corresponding file on the company's website (do not start a download via the direct link).
In particular, do not open attached files. - Use antivirus programs and firewalls.
- Always end the online session with your bank by logging out or logging out.
Do not just close the browser window or go to another website before logging out. - Check your account balance and account transactions regularly.
This means you can react quickly if unwanted actions have taken place.
Source: Dortmund police
In line with this topic:
Phishing in the area of online banking – Sparkasse, VR-Bank, TFBank, Targobank
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