“Do you not have family or friends in the country you are calling from? Under no circumstances answer an unknown foreign number.” This, no matter how simple, is an important tip that Tanya Wijngaardi uses. “It’s almost always a scam.”

“Hi, this is Amazon.”

She herself was also on guard when a journalist from RTL Nieuws called her at a mobile phone number unknown to her: “I’ve been receiving a lot of suspicious calls recently, especially from Dutch numbers.”

Most people know that calling from an unknown number can just be a scam. But how exactly do these criminals operate? When you answer, they often pretend to be help desk employees from a large company, Wijngaarde knows. “We’ve been running into Amazon a lot lately.”

“For example, you will first receive a bar on line. You have placed a significantly expensive order. If this is not correct, press 1,” she explains.

Startled, she pressed 1. After all, she didn’t ask for anything. “Then someone comes up to you on the phone and says, ‘Oh, didn’t you do that? I can cancel the call for you and protect you from this from now on. I can look right into your computer with you.’

‘Can I watch?’

Then you just have to install a remote access program, such as TeamViewer. “This person then gains access to your computer or phone. The scammers can then try to empty your bank account.”

So far this year, the Anti-Fraud Helpdesk has received 279 reports of this type of fraud, which is even more complex and is called “helpdesk fraud.” Of those who reported, 39 people indicated that the money had already been stolen from them. In total, they said they boarded the ship for 22,000 euros.

Also widely circulated: the phone call “from the bank.” “If you answer, you’ll be told something like: ‘We’ve seen strange activity in your bank account.’

You will then be persuaded to transfer the funds to a “secure account”. Wijngaarde suspects that information derived from data leaks is often used very usefully for this purpose. “If someone on the other end of the line knows who you are, where you live, and what your account number is, it builds trust.”

A lot of money

Criminals can make their living through phone calls “from the bank.” The Anti-Fraud Helpdesk has so far received 838 reports about this in 2023, with funds allegedly stolen 131 times. According to the correspondents themselves, this included a total of more than one and a half million euros.

Don’t answer if you don’t know a number, and hang up if you smell something bad during the conversation. Wijngaarde can’t stress this often enough. “If you think your bank is actually calling you: hang up and call the trusted phone number you have from them.”

On the website of police “It also happens that criminals pretend to be employees of the Ministry of Justice and Security, the Supreme Court and the tax authorities.”

At the end of the conversation, the victims are sometimes thousands of euros poorer, police say. “Good to know: Government agencies never ask for payment information and never ask to install software on a phone or computer.” money transfer? Not a common request either. So don’t do it.

Wangiri

Last year, according to the Anti-Fraud Helpdesk, there were several suspicious phone calls in English, allegedly from foreign police, justice or courts. That has dropped again.

Things also appear to be calmer than before in the area of ​​the so-called Wanjiri scam. You receive a call from abroad, 0044 for example, and the phone only rings briefly.

If you call back, you will inadvertently hang up on numbers with expensive premium rates. This is often only reflected in a significantly higher phone bill. “But this is rarely reported to the Fraud Help Desk.”

What can the service provider do?

Phone provider KPN tells RTL News that it sees help desk scams “in practice, unfortunately, on occasion.” In cooperation with other operators and the Dutch Consumer and Market Authority (ACM), we try to combat this type of crime.

“If we see numbers being used for these types of purposes, we block them immediately. You can also block the caller on your own device.”

Once again the urgent advice from KPN: “Do not answer strange numbers. Do not call back. And if you call them unexpectedly: Do not share data and do not cooperate.”