Frauds with funds siphoned from user accounts after purchases from electronic stores outside the European Union are becoming more frequent, warns the online platform “We, the users”.
The last high-profile case is related to the withdrawal of over BGN 1,000. from the account of a user who shopped on a foreign site.
“I ordered a thermal mug for BGN 100. from a site outside the European Union. Scammers get your hands on the phone number you entered when ordering the purchase. They send you an SMS to pay duty on the ordered product. The catch is in the link – clicking and entering your bank card details in it is fatal. I paid customs duty in the amount of BGN 2.50, after which over a thousand BGN were withdrawn from my bank account in hours. It’s so well done that you can’t tell it’s a scam unless you look at some very small details,” the victim, who in this case is the vlogger Georgi Shishkov, told Bulgaria ON AIR TV.
Gabriela Rumenova from “We, the users” recommends that we always do checks, be suspicious, not follow links just because someone invites us to do so, but to inform ourselves who is sending the link.
Depending on the case, to contact the merchant from whom we shopped or the courier service from which we expect the delivery.
In Georgi’s case, the fraudsters made several purchases with his card in Serbia, and the phone number that sent the misleading SMS about the duty owed was Greek.
From “We the Consumers” pay attention to the sequence of actions when shopping online. The process usually involves confirmation of the order and, at a later stage, confirmation of shipment by the merchant. The next communication is from the courier service that the shipment is at the delivery office specified by the customer.
Messages requesting to follow toll payment links are suspicious and require you to be proactive in order to find out who is behind them.
“Such links usually lead to addresses that are very similar to popular courier services or electronic stores, but the difference is only in the extension of the domain or some letter in the name of this store,” explains Gabriela Rumenova.
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