Ministry of Interior: Fraudsters posing as application support agents are draining accounts

The Cybercrime Directorate of the Bulgarian Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Department is receiving increasing reports of fraud committed by people posing as support staff of a well-known international fintech company. The fraud begins when the victim receives an incoming call in the popular VoIP communication application from an international number, but initialized with the name and logo of the fintech company, the Ministry of Interior indicates.

The fake employees act out various scenarios in which they try to convince users to transfer funds in connection with the necessary verification.

The goal is to gain access to the account or bank card details of the fintech company's customer. If the requested information is refused, they threaten that the account will be closed and the funds lost.

The signals of fraud sound like this or something similar:

„"I received a phone call via a mobile application from a phone number +90….., in which a man introduced himself as support from the online financial institution. The call was with a Caller ID that matched the name and had its logo. The person spoke English and looked for me by name and surname. He wanted to ask me a few questions to verify my account and said that if I did not provide him with the data, my account would be suspended. I asked him how I could trust him and at that moment he sent me a message that had a link directly to my profile in the application and I believed him. 

This gentleman also asked for my 3 digits from the back of my bank card and after I gave them to him I saw how at the same time he made a transfer from my account to a crypto platform and 4 transactions to different merchants, worth 5000 leva. I managed to stop 2 of the transfers. When I realized that it was a scam, I contacted the customer service office and the merchants, but they told me that they could do nothing and that I should contact the authorities. Everyone assured me that it was a scam, but my claim would not be honored, although I claim that the person I spoke to was very familiar with my profile. The official customer service office assured me that no call was made to me.“

Cyber experts advise:

• Never provide bank card details, passwords, confirmation codes or any other type of information that would allow strangers to access your personal information, accounts, emails, etc.

• End the call and immediately contact the institution the caller is claiming to be. Financial institutions do not perform verification over the phone.
•  Do not open links sent by strangers, even if they seem legitimate.

•  Carefully check email addresses, numbers, and accounts through which strangers communicate with you - scammers often use identical copies.

• If you have already become a victim of a crime or unauthorized transactions have occurred – notify your bank and file a police report.

Source: https://petel.bg/