A routine activity on the Internet can end in quite a disaster
Fake carrier and service employee
A woman from Grodzisk Wielkopolski who used a well-known shopping platform lost almost PLN 17,000. She was also burdened with additional loans to repay. And how did this happen if the injured party only wanted to sell the item online? The fraudsters went to great lengths to impersonate both the shipping company and the platform employee. Due to their resourcefulness, they also managed to open two loan agreements on her account.
This is another warning sign that even routine online sales can result in serious financial consequences.
What should you pay attention to and what should you be most careful about?
A person who wants to buy an exhibited item contacts us via the application. And when we think that everything is going according to plan, the interested buyer asks us for our e-mail address. He sends us an email with a link to the alleged confirmation of the transaction. In many cases, it’s really easy to be fooled – the email has a professional graphic design and contains the logo of a well-known shipping company.
After clicking the link, we are redirected to an unknown login page with fields to fill in – this is how fraudsters extort payment card details, phone numbers and electronic banking login details. Many people fill in such fields, believing that this is how they finalize the sale. But everyone wants to get money as quickly as possible.
The email is followed by a phone call
This is not the end of the whole procedure. Immediately afterwards, we receive a call from an alleged employee of the platform. He informs us that in order to complete the transaction, a special “wallet” will be created in the application, and the amount for the given item will be transferred to the seller’s account.
This deposit must also be approved in the bank’s mobile application as part of security procedures. Then, these funds are to be returned.
In the mentioned case, the woman approved the given amounts in this way. She also did not know that two loan agreements had been opened on her account, which she also accepted. The entire case is currently being investigated by the police, but it is already known that this is an example of a fraud scheme.
