They recognize the story at the Fraud Help Desk. “We receive reports of people who have spent hundreds of euros sending those text messages,” said spokesman Tanya Wijngaarde. “That comes in enormous quantities.”
At KPN, they see an increase in SMS traffic through the apps, says Oscar Koeroo, the company’s security expert. Those text messages are clearly not sent by the users themselves. “By approaching the customers we find out: this is something new, this is something different.”
The special thing about apps like Flubot and Anatsa is that they use the victim’s phone to go to the next victim. “Previously, it was often the case that a telephone number was abused and a lot happens from there. Now it is the case that the victims themselves are ultimately the sending party.”
But spreading even more (often misspelled) text messages isn’t all the apps do. They also create fake login screens for banking apps and can pass any information on the screen to criminals.
Criminals in particular abroad were able to obtain bank details, which meant they could sometimes divert large amounts of money, but in the Netherlands the banks are often better at protecting against these practices, says Yoanne Spoormans, cyber specialist at the police. “In the Netherlands, a lot of online banking is done. Banks are better at recognizing fraud here. In most cases it is detected. But not in all cases, so prevention remains the best.”
Corona
Tracking down the criminals behind the apps is difficult. “In the average home burglary, the perpetrator usually lives nearby and leaves traces. Here you see that criminals can be anywhere in the world, and that also applies to those who develop the apps. sold on to other criminals who will also use them again, so a lot of information and research is needed and it also requires smart interventions by the police, banks and telecom. “
It is probably no coincidence that the senders of the text messages pretend to be postal companies. “That may have to do with corona. Some criminals make use of it, in the beginning of the corona crisis they did this by scamming with masks. Now they know that people order a lot of things and they abuse it.”
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