A resident of Lubin contacted the local Police unit and stated that he had been defrauded while trying to sell a used battery. The perpetrator, pretending to be interested in buying the item, contacted the man via a messaging app and then sent a link to fake banking websites. The victim selected the bank where he held an account and twice confirmed the six-digit code sent by the criminal. After receiving information from the bank that PLN 3,000 and PLN 2,000 had been transferred from his account, the Lubin resident realized that someone was robbing his account. In this way, the scammer deprived the man of PLN 5,000.
Police officers remind everyone not to provide access details for their accounts or cards. When expecting a transfer, information about a PIN or the three-digit code on the back of a card is not needed. Pay attention to payment links that only appear to be trustworthy.
Previous reports show that these links contain altered or added dots, digits or words in foreign languages, intended to convince us that we are entering the website of a classifieds portal or bank. Graphically, the website may look genuine. If in doubt, ask other people whether they have used similar payment methods and what they looked like. Above all, read the terms and conditions of portals and banks to learn what a secure transaction should look like. This may save the money accumulated in your account.
Be careful!
Links sent by scammers often resemble links to genuine websites, and the differences are almost impossible to notice. Therefore, each time we should carefully verify the websites we use. We should not click links received from unknown people. However, the worst mistake is providing data such as the login and password for online banking, or information written on a payment card. In such cases, scammers can easily gain access to our money, which is much harder to recover.
Read the terms and conditions of sales platforms and banks’ warnings
Official websites of sales portals and banks contain more information about scammers’ methods. They also include examples of messages and fake websites that scammers use to try to obtain our savings.