Inexhaustible in imagination as to the tricks they use to deceive unsuspecting citizens are the astute according to the Head of the Office of Information for Journalists & Public Relations of the General Regional Police Directorate of Epirus, Police Officer A’ Ilias Mitsios.
Given that perhaps the best way to protect against this particular form of crime is information, Mr. Mitsios drew the attention of our fellow citizens to the specific issue and by talking about the frauds, the perpetrators’ methodology and the ways to protect citizens, with in his statements, Mr. Mitsios emphasized that, unfortunately, the incidents of defrauding citizens by astute people continue to happen.
Although the methods used by the perpetrators vary widely, the basic principles are the same, so if the public is properly informed, they will likely be able to avoid falling into their trap.
And speaking of methodology, Mr. Mitsios mentioned that the astute are constantly inventing new pretexts and tricks, which many times, in order to be even more convincing, draw them from current affairs. Thus, lately we have seen the pretext of providing electricity or gasoline allowances (power pass, fuel pass) being used frequently, or clever people pretending to be EODY employees during the pandemic period and so on.
Analyzing now most of the incidents, which the Police services in Epirus have dealt with recently, Mr. Mitsios emphasized that what dominates at the moment is Phishing. That is, the catching, more simply fishing, of the codes we use to connect to our bank’s online services. So having the perpetrators our passwords, they can direct money from our account to theirs, or their accomplices.
There are many ways in which the perpetrators attempt to extract the codes:
- The most common, perhaps, is the bulk e-mail, which purports to have been sent to us from an existing organisation, such as our bank, or some business or public authority, such as the Independent Inland Revenue Authority or even officials of the Greek Police and the Ministry of Civil Protection. Characteristics of these messages are: (a) they try to create a sense of urgency and call us to take some immediate action, because otherwise there will be adverse consequences (such as allegedly blocking our account or that we are involved in some criminal case ), (b) contain a hyperlink, which if selected will redirect to a fake website, which will resemble the real one of the alleged organization and we will be asked to enter our codes. Besides, if we observe carefully, we will find that the email address of the sender is unrelated to that of the real organization. We ignore these types of messages, we delete them and in any case, if we have doubts, we contact the specific organization directly.
- In other incidents handled by the local Police, the vigilantes identified advertisements on the Internet, which had been posted by citizens for the sale of a product and after contacting them and expressing their desire to buy it, without even seeing it or seeing it check, they tried to catch the e-banking codes, in order to supposedly deposit the money into their account. It is worth noting that this method is also used at the expense of businesses, in order to allegedly place an order for the purchase of products or make a reservation at a hotel. The key to our protection in these situations is to remember that if someone wants to deposit money into our account, we only give the IBAN number of our account and nothing more. And if someone claims to have deposited money with us, we do the checking on our account ourselves and we are not satisfied with, for example, some photo that they send us with some proof of payment, because it will probably be fake.
And conventional fraud
In addition to phishing, we also have the cases of conventional fraud, where the victims are usually older. The cases are now classic, where unsuspecting citizens receive a phone call from someone who informs them that their child has had an accident and they need money to undergo an operation, or that they have caused a fatal traffic accident and money is needed to avoid the consequences of the law.
Speaking about incidents against elderly people, Mr. Mitsios pointed out cases where vigilantes -mainly in villages-, enter houses pretending to be employees of some service, such as for example the Municipality or PPC, or the itinerant and thus, without being noticed, they remove money and valuables from the house.
Also, in several cases that were reported to the Police, the vigilantes, usually acting in twos or threes, approached elderly people on the street and after one of them distracted them, for example by pretending to be their acquaintance, the accomplice took money and purses from the pockets or even a chain from the neck.
For these cases, first of all, it is good for younger people to inform our older relatives about these practices, who for their part should be careful and not be easily convinced by people who “approach” them. as acquaintances of relatives and friends.
Also, be especially wary of unknown people who attempt to enter their home under various pretexts and tricks.
It is also important – and this applies to everyone – to avoid keeping large sums of money and valuables at home, since either by the method of fraud or by breaking into the house, we may lose them.
Finally, Mr. Mitsios reminded the citizens that if they fall victim to any fraud or theft, even in the case of an attempt, to inform the police so that the investigation can begin, not only to clarify their own case, but also to prevent it from being committed similar acts at the expense of other fellow citizens.
