ING warns customers to watch out for scammers posing over the phone in English as the ‘National Police’ or the ‘Supreme Court’. The bank has received several reports of this form of fraud in recent weeks.
ING spokesperson Alexandra Schippers confirms that this variant of ‘spoofing‘, or scam, has become more frequent in recent weeks. Both on the website and in the app, the bank therefore warns not to do business with the scammers.
During the conversation, people hear a tape in English. You will be asked to enter a number, after which you will get an English-speaking person on the line who says that he works at the ‘National Police‘ if it ‘Supreme Court of the Netherlands‘. The scammer goes through some data and says things about, for example, misuse of the citizen service number, an arrest warrant or suspicion of criminal activity.
The scammers then propose to ‘secure’ your money by transferring a large amount to another account or paying an amount ‘to avoid prosecution’. The scammer takes over your computer remotely and transfers your money to another account.
If someone calls you and tells you to act quickly or it could cost you money, you already know you’re dealing with a scammer
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According to Schippers, it is important to contact the bank as soon as possible after such a call. They can then block a card or ensure that the online payment environment is temporarily unavailable for the customer in question. The bank also blocks customers who are guilty of such fraud. A dedicated team of fraud experts conducts daily investigations into spoofing, and the bank is also working with other banks and the police to do something about this.
This information came too late for two people from the Achterhoek: they recently became victims of spoofing by criminals posing as a bank. It was a conversation of about forty minutes with disastrous results. ,,We saw it immediately when logging in. There was 0 on the balance. The ground dropped from under our feet.” The investigation into that case is still ongoing.
The advice remains to hang up immediately if you do not trust the case. Yoanne Spoormans of the cybercrime team at the East Netherlands police: ,,The most important thing to remember is that the bank can intervene itself if they see something suspicious. No help is ever needed. If someone calls you and tells you to act quickly or it could cost you money, you already know you’re dealing with a scammer. The bank freezes your account first and only then will contact you.
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