Gas stations target of new scammer trick | Undertake

They call the gas station with an apology and indicate that they still want to pay for the petrol. To be able to make that payment, the gas station owner is asked to send a Tikkie or an account number is requested. Then money is taken via ransomware or other viruses.

“It seems that scammers are shifting their target,” says Ewout Klok, chairman of Beta, the interest group for gas stations. “It is no longer the usual companies such as banks or credit companies, but now gas station owners are apparently the target.”

WhatsApp-fraud

According to Klok, gas stations often work with a ‘drive-through system’, with which they can easily check whether someone has actually driven through. That is often not the case with these types of reports. “We also advise gas stations to always deal with deviating payment requests from customers in a formal manner. So never send Tikkies or pass on bank account details.”

In April, the gas station owners were also the target of WhatsApp fraud, but in reverse order. People receive an app message from the fraudsters that they had filled up without paying and that amounts still have to be paid. A payment request will then be sent. According to Beta, there was then a connection with the major data breach in the car industry a month earlier, in which telephone data of possibly millions of car owners came out on the street.

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