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Federal Network Agency warns of fake PayPal calls
Updated on October 8, 2024 – 4:46 p.mReading time: 6 min.
Scammers are inventive when it comes to conning people out of their money. We’ll show you which stitches are currently in circulation.
Criminals are constantly trying to obtain sensitive account and credit card data as well as consumers’ personal information. To do this, they primarily use digital channels. You can find out which stitches you use here.
Anyone who currently receives a call with the Belgian area code +32 should be careful. This could be a fake PayPal call. If you answer the call, a voice on the tape at the other end reports that a large payment has been made. The called party is then asked to press key 1 to prevent payment.
The Federal Network Agency warns: “It can be assumed that the calls have an abusive legal background. The Federal Network Agency warns in particular against disclosing personal data to callers.”
According to the authority, in addition to calls from abroad, in some cases there are also calls displaying German mobile phone numbers. “End the call,” advises the Federal Network Agency. “Also, ignore the request to press a button and never share any personal information. Tell family, friends and acquaintances about this scam so that they are warned.”
- Also read: You should block these phone numbers immediately
The consumer advice center is currently warning of a scam on its website that is primarily aimed at Targobank customers. According to VZ’s “Phishing Radar”, the fraudulent emails have the subject line: “Verify your phone number for secure account access.”
You should then be able to do exactly that via a link in the message. But the consumer advice center warns against opening this link. You can already tell from the “dubious sender address” and the “impersonal salutation” that the email is a phishing attempt. Anyone who has received this message should move it to their spam inbox and not respond.
The police in Thuringia are warning of so-called “shock calls” from a fraudster posing as a police officer. The officials in the Apolda area were made aware of telephone scammers by several senior citizens. The seniors reported that a man pretended to be a police officer on the phone and claimed that a family member had been involved in a serious traffic accident. One person was killed in the accident and a deposit of several thousand euros was now required to release the accused.
“Fortunately, none of those called responded to this request and immediately informed the police,” writes the Apolda police station and warns “strongly against this type of call,” in which people are put under pressure with bad news and scaremongering. Another sign of such “shock calls” is that the caller tries to keep the person being called on the line at all costs so that no questions can be asked from the police, relatives or friends.
Good news when it comes to thwarted fraud also comes from North Rhine-Westphalia. Here, “Der Weseler Lokalkompass” reports that several seniors have reported “shock calls” to the police in the past few days. Everyone recognized the fraud and did the right thing: hung up.
Fraudsters cheated a senior citizen in Saxony out of 110,000 euros using the so-called cooking pot scam. In two other cases, seniors handed over 25,000 euros to the fraudsters, as the Dresden police reported. It was only later that they noticed the fraud and called the police.
In the so-called cooking pot scam, the perpetrators pretend to be police officers on the phone, mostly to older people. During the conversation, they suggest to the seniors that there is a gang of thieves in their living area who can use a special tracking device called CC 15 to track down banknotes inside houses and then break in specifically.
The alleged police officers therefore advise putting the money in a cooking pot where it cannot be located. At the same time, they offer to have an officer in civilian clothes pick up the money and supposedly bring it to safety. The real police, however, advise never to give money into strangers’ hands and not to let strangers into your home.