As people become more and more dependent on technology for various needs of their daily lives, they are unfortunately more likely to fall victim to cybercrime if they do not take proper precautions. Increasingly, scams involving the theft of personal and banking information and being linked to electronic scams are coming to light.
In Cyprus, the alarm bell for telephone and cyber fraud in general is ringing once again by the Cyprus Banking Association, launching an information campaign on the specific methods, which have recently been on the rise.
Giannos Rossidis, head of the Department of Human Resources, Social Affairs, Education & Training, at the association, told “F” that in recent weeks they have observed a rapidly evolving phenomenon of various types of fraud, mainly by phone attempts or phone calls. sms. He notes that the main goal of criminals is to gain access to the bank account of unsuspecting citizens, in order to extract money or even exploit the account, passing through it illegal money, resulting from criminal activities, and then also channeling it to illegal ones. destinations. That was the reason, says Mr. Rossidis, that, in the last days of 2020, we implemented as an Association of Banks an extraordinary communication campaign, to inform the public about the types of fraud that occur strongly during this period, but also about the methods that criminals use to mislead citizens and gain access to their bank accounts.
Mr. Rossidis also states that the main message of the association was the urging not to give, for any reason, the codes and passwords for access to the bank accounts, as consumers should know that the bank will never ask for such information and , therefore, when citizens receive such requests they should cut off communication and inform both the bank and the Police.
And the Police
The Cyprus Police, for its part, has recently been calling for announcements and recommending the public to pay attention to all types of electronic fraud, especially those related to electronic identity theft and electronic banking fraud.
A recent survey by technology company Prolifts Testing analyzed data collected by the European Commission, which in turn surveyed 27,607 European citizens, with key questions about whether they would contact authorities if they were the victims of cyber theft and fraud.
Electronic identity theft
According to the Prolifts Testing survey, Swedes (92%) are more likely to contact the police if they fall victim to online theft detection. In second place, 86% of Dutch citizens would notify the police if they were the target of online identity theft. Finland is in third place, as 83% of Finns will contact the police if they find that they have fallen victim to online identity theft. Among other European countries, Denmark (81%) and Spain (80%) are ranked fourth and fifth, respectively. While the Cypriots, it appears from the research, that 77% would go to the police to report such fraud.
On the other hand, citizens of Malta and Slovakia are less likely to contact the police if they fall victim to online identity theft, with only 54% of citizens in each country willing to do so in the scenario of cyber theft identity.
On average, of all the countries surveyed, 70% of European citizens would contact the police if they were the victim of an online identity theft.
Electronic banking fraud
Just as in the case of online identity theft, Swedish citizens (82%) are more likely to contact the police if they fall victim to online banking fraud. Cyprus is in third place, as 78% of people in our country state that they will contact the police if they fall victim to fraud in the context of a direct connection for banking transactions. In second place, 79% of Greek and Spanish citizens would alert the police if they were the target of an online banking scam.
Among other European countries, where more than 70% of citizens would alert the police if they fell victim to cyber banking fraud, the figure for Lithuania is 76%, in Finland 75% and in Germany 74%.
On the other hand, Slovaks are less likely to contact the police if they fall victim to online banking fraud, as only 48% of citizens said they would.
On average, of all the countries surveyed, 65% of European citizens would report an electronic banking fraud to the police if they found out that they had been the victim of such an act.
