Federal police issued a warning about telephone scams on Friday. The most popular scam is pretending to be a salesperson and trying to get money off their mark via Digipass. Police say there has been a massive surge in this type of crime in Belgium. Elderly people are the most popular target for this type of crime.
Police say the criminal poses as a member of the European Community, the National Bank, the Finance SPF, Test-Achats and more recently Proximus. They tell their mark they have been scammed or they have been harassed by phone. They say the compensation will be placed in their account immediately. The criminal then asks them to get their Digipass and give them the codes without the PIN. The victim trusts them as they don’t ask for their PIN. However, the criminal doesn’t need it as they have the electronic signature codes.
Federal police say over 400 people in Belgium have fallen victim to this type of scam.
(Source: Belga)
