There are probably dozens of internet fraud per day, if not hundreds of thousands. I have received messages many times that stung with a kilometer. I blocked, sometimes reported and forgot about the case. I have always been alert because I wrote dozens of texts about such scams. But not this time. My vigilance weakened for a moment and I was a few clicks from cleaning my account.
I would not write about it, were it not for the X person who got the same sounding message. And if it wasn't for the commentary of the next person who threw the attempt to deceive Jota in the jota, like mine. I would not write about it, if not for the fact that although from the beginning I had doubts about the transaction, I was ready to click a suspicious link. Because when emotions are at stake even knowledge, experience and vigilance, they may not be enough. Seriously, fraudsters even They did not tryand I was close to became twisted anyway. But in turn.
This is how fraudsters try to inspire your trust
I put up a desk on Facebook for sale. After a few days I received the following message: “Good morning! Is the advertisement current? I would ask for me to tomorrow” (spelling of this and subsequent messages preserved in the original). As I really wanted to get rid of this desk, I did not pay attention to a slightly suspicious spelling, moreover, a mistake was not necessarily made here, people write differently. I wrote back that I would book. When I look at it in retrospect, I see that in this way fraudsters began to build trust. They pretended to be interested in a desk, and because it was just a reservation, I thought that maybe a person writing to me, he was still wondering, that is, he is not a cheater. At that moment, nothing has aroused suspicion in me, and the fraudsters began to build a kind of what relationship, business, but still.
Half an hour has passed and I get another message. The same as two other people mentioned. “I would like to buy from shipping, I have a contract with InPost, I can order a courier who will pack the goods and take from home. The payment will be made earlier to the account before shipping. OK?”. I didn't suspect anything again, unlike my partner, who, however, did not share her fears with me. However, he has more experience in sales online and knows well that when real people want to buy something, they usually confuse it with a courier company. For her, it was suspected that someone was proposing such a comprehensive service. However, I was glad that I would arrange for sale quickly and conveniently, without having to do anything. So not only that at this stage my vigilance was put to sleep, it was also aroused for the second time, which darkened my judgment. I write back: “great”.
“Ok. To order a courier, I need an address for picking up goods, account number and phone number”. Without blinking, I gave the address and phone number, asking for Blik, it is known. “Unfortunately, I do not have a BLIK but you will receive an immediate transfer.” And the second message right away: “Foam You will now receive bank checks, tomorrow you will contact Mrs. Kurier, with whom you will set a convenient date and meeting place for you. ”
Here, the syntax and asking me as you, raised my doubts. I checked the profile of the person interested in selling. Founded a few months ago, there are photos, dozens of friends. It is true that currently in the profile photo there is a young boy in the mountains, and previous photos belonged to a woman, but I found good, different people put on Facebook and lead him in different ways, do not judge me (screenshots from the profile do not attach, because he probably contains stolen photographs of private individuals). So despite the doubts, I sent the account number.
I regretted it temporarily. I tried to delete the message (or rather withdraw the sending), but it was not possible. Messenger has such functionality, but regular users know that sometimes it only allows you to remove it at home, but without the ability to withdraw to everyone. So I had to wait with the proverbial hand in the potty, which would happen next. I checked nervously on the internet what a fraudster with an account number could do (basically nothing), I went to the cheater profile several times to see if this is not a real person, generally it was a very unpleasant half hour.
And suddenly there is a notification. Unfortunately, not about the transfer. He was supposed to be immediate, but he wasn't like that, because he wasn't “at all. Instead, the fraudster sent me a message to wait 5 minutes, and he would pay the money and order a courier, in this way building a picture of a person really interested in buying a desk. Another notification and I get a screenshot with confirmation of the transfer. From a distance I see the Bank Pekao logo, and since I immediately got another message, I didn't watch the document. “Everything is ready, courier ordered, I made a fee via InPost. Please check the order,” wrote the fraud. And he sent a link to the random series of numbers and letters. Another message: “I paid money InPost. In the order there is a” Next “button. Please select your bank and register your account to download the payment and confirm the shipping”.
In fact, I was already sure it was a scam. My finger, however, hung over the link, ready to squeeze it to see what is hidden under it. There were thoughts in my head: And if he is a real person and I will accuse her of fraud? I will lose my chance to sell a desk! And if it's just a link to cash on delivery? It was all too beautiful to make it real, and yet my finger took weight for 2-3 minutes, approaching the suspicious link more and more. But no, I stopped at the moment. And I thought it was time to look at the confirmation of the transfer …
… who have completely dispelled my doubts about the intention of the person writing with me (if it was not some chatbot AI). However, I can imagine that this, after all, ineptly fabricated screenshot, he would be able to deceive someone. Ba! I was fooled by myself, just because a real logo appeared in front of my eyes bank.
If the fraudsters tried more to, maybe I would stay without payday now. Until then, they were really decent. The document confirmed the transfer to the InPost account, the amount, date agreed, the operation reference number, and even with a small print information that the confirmation was generated electronically, so it does not require a stamp or signature. Contact details to Pekao also agree. However, fraudsters made some mistakes. The sender's section has been described as “the account is to blame” and the reception – “the bill has”. The funniest, however, was the poem “Data of the currency”, whatever that means. It was probably the date of currency conversion.
At this point I said: Stop and wrote to the fraudsters that they could try more. Contact broke off. I reported the cheater profile to Facebook, which of course did nothing about it and decided that everything was fine. This is how this story ended, one step about the tragedy. Despite the fact that I had an identity once, loans were taken at me and loans were taken to someone else, impersonating me, in my emotions I was ready to trust the fraudsters.
Contact with cheaters is a new norm. We must learn to live with it
Since not only I got such a message, I sent questions to Cert-Nask, whether it is a new fraud or whether an increase in online fraud was noticed. We received the answer that the institution has not yet observed a clear increase in the number of this type of campaign. “Recently, there is a lot of attempts to impersonate Ministry of Financewhich we associate with the ongoing PIT settlement period. The number of campaigns related to sales platforms does not differ from the level that we observe every day, “NASK wrote.
The institution ensures that it actively monitors the activity of fraudsters and adds the domains they use to the list of warnings on an ongoing basis. In 2024, 92 thousand such domains were added. “This effectively hinders criminals their practice, it is also worth reporting to us all links received from fraudsters – this is a real way to protect other people” – informs NASK.
I also asked about what threatens the charged account number: “Just providing the account number in the conversation is not dangerous, at most, it will help fraudsters to personalize the materials that they try to convince us of their credibility – whether it is a fake invoice, or the false side of our bank. We should especially be careful about where we provide our data login. post E -mail, social media accounts or a number, expiry date and CVV of the payment card – that's why it is so important to verify the address of the page we enter to pay for something or authenticate ” – the institution answered.
Nowadays, we are constantly exposed to contact with various types of fraud – we will not avoid it, but we may not be fooled. It is always worth verifying the address of the page we enter from the link received from someone – does it agree with the address of a real trade platform or courier company? It is also worth getting acquainted with educational materials and sharing this knowledge with family and friends
– summed up Nask.