The Czech National Bank has issued a warning against a new wave of fraud. The attackers take advantage of the pre-Christmas rush. Clients of various banks are persuaded to choose their savings and put them in safe deposit boxes. However, these are bitcoin ATMs from which money will never be returned.
Fraudsters convince the bank’s client that his money is in jeopardy and force him to withdraw savings. Subsequently, everything is aimed at the fraudulent depositing money into a bitcoin ATM to an account where they will be “safe”. Needless to say, the trustee loses his savings with this move. The number of similar cases has increased in recent days. The damage caused is in the order of millions of crowns.
“Attackers usually contact the client that his account has been compromised, and if he wants to save his money, he must cooperate with them. At the same time, they often flaunt themselves in cooperation with the Police of the Czech Republic. Clients, afraid of losing their money, will do what the fraudsters ask of them, “ explains the chairman of the CNB’s Cybersecurity Commission Petr Barák.
According to him, there are also those who let fraudsters directly into their internet banking. To do this, fraudsters use an application that allows so-called remote access.
“In banks, we also encounter cases where fraudsters call a client and ask him if he is applying for a loan at his bank. When the client tells them that he is not applying for a loan, the fraudsters explain that the loan has already been approved and that the money drawn on his account must be immediately withdrawn in cash and returned to the bank’s account with the help of the nearest cryptocurrency ATM, ” Barák explains. In similar cases, the client loses his savings and still has to repay a loan that he did not draw himself.
The Czech National Bank strongly recalls:
The Czech Banking Association warns bank clients to take extra care and in no case disclose sensitive data by phone or e-mail. Banks never want this information from their clients. If they suspect an account attack, they block it themselves to protect their clients’ savings.
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The fraudsters do not avoid the Hradec Králové region either
Over the last few days, the police have had to deal with several similar scams. Each of them featured a fraudulent bank manager. In the Hradec Králové region alone, it caused damage of around 500,000 crowns.
“The last victim is a 31-year-old woman who succumbed to unknown callers who convinced her to attack her account.” said a police spokeswoman Iva Kormošová. In this case, the fraudster instructed the woman to save her savings in the so-called warehouse, which is located in the Atrium shopping center in Hradec Králové. Only at home did the woman find out that she had put the money in a bitcoin ATM in an account to which she did not have access.
A similar pattern of fraud worked a few days ago for a 35-year-old man and a 73-year-old woman who wanted to invest in cryptocurrencies. A bank clerk was supposed to help them with the purchase. He took the money from them, but did not supply the necessary passwords to the virtual wallet.
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