Tuesday 12 October 2021, Poradnik bezpieczeństwa

New type of scam - internet grandkid

Lost24

Policemen from the cybercrime division warn against new fraud based on “internet grandkid”. The main targets are people using social networks and online banking.


As the police explain, fraud is based on the use of social engineering and time pressure.


In the first step, fraudsters send out offers of financial intermediation or investment services via social networks, and taking up the offer is to “bring” big benefits. After clicking on the advertisement, the victim is redirected to the login page of the fictitious company, for the application to pass successfully, the victim must pay any amount of money. However, at this stage there are technical problems with the victim’s account management and in order to fix them it is necessary to contact the consultant by phone.


A scammer poses for the company’s consultant then asks you to install a software that is to help remove the so-called problems. Moreover, thanks to it, he will also show the victim how to use the website. In fact, the purpose of the software is to take remote control of the device. Next, the fraudsters ask the victim to log into the bank again, which gives them access to passwords and logins for online banking.


Despite the double security of transactions, which must be confirmed with a code included in the text message, fraudsters create time pressure by insisting on confirming the transaction as soon as possible. At this point, the victim does not read the message received from the bank, which includes the transfer amount, often in foreign currency, as well as information about the conclusion of a loan agreement.


It might seem that the victims are the elderly, however, according to the police, most of the victims are under 40 years of age.