How do the criminals operate?

  1. The scammer calls a specific person and poses as a bank consultant. (The phone number from which the fake bank employee calls is often the bank’s official number, which can be confirmed on its website.)
  2. The caller informs the victim about suspicious transactions on their account.
  3. To prevent them and cancel the transfers, the purported consultant instructs the victim to install an application (available in the app store) that allows the scammer to perform remote actions on the caller’s smartphone or computer.
  4. In this way, the scammer gains access to the victim’s device and consequently to the account from which they make transfers, then withdraws the funds accumulated there and even attempts to take out a loan in the victim’s name.

“Recently, nearly PLN 45,000 disappeared from the account of a woman from Złotoryja in a similar way,” reports Staff Sergeant Dominika Kwakszys, press officer of the District Police Headquarters in Złotoryja. She adds:

We urge you to exercise particular caution! Bank employees never ask for your account login or password, let alone an SMS authorization code, nor do they recommend installing applications that would allow them to perform transactions on a customer’s account. IMPORTANT – you can always verify the consultant’s identity, by calling the helpline.

And she urges:

Let us remember! Every call from someone claiming to be a bank employee who suggests installing software on a phone or computer should raise our suspicions and may be a call from a scammer. Any attempt to extort money should be reported to the Police immediately by calling the emergency number 112.