That the number of frauds has increased in Sweden in recent years is nothing new. In 2023 alone, the number of notifications was a whopping 22 percent more compared to the year before.
In a press release from the IT security company IT-Total, it is reported that Sweden is actually one of the countries in the world where the public is exposed to the most e-mail scams.
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Source: IT Total
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Fraudsters use BankID to cheat
For his help, the fraudster most often uses the BankID service, which has around eight million active users today. Either they try to win your trust by getting you to sign or identify yourself in the service, in order to get access to your money.
In addition to that, it has become more common for cybercriminals to increasingly try to imitate the service in various contexts. By spreading malicious code over the Internet, in YouTube videos for example, they spread malicious code that generates false notifications of intrusion attempts.
– Swedes are a digitally active population that e-shops a lot and are generally good at English. That makes us particularly interesting for these actors, says Diego Lopezhead of cyber security at IT-Total, i the press release.
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Microsoft and Apple among the affected companies
Companies, both national and international, include Microsoft, Apple and Docusign. By tricking the vulnerable person into clicking on malicious links, the malicious codes are spread.
– Microsoft stands out in the statistics, but interestingly, Swedish Bank-ID ends up in twelfth place on the list of brands that cybercriminals most often imitate. That says a lot about how vulnerable we Swedes are.
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Suspected fraud? Be observant
In conclusion, the head of cyber security at IT-Total, Diego López, emphasizes that at the slightest suspicion, one should adopt an analogous method to ensure who it is who is trying to contact you and get hold of sensitive information.
– Be observant. If something feels the slightest bit strange, I recommend the analog method: call or talk to the colleague, friend or sender and confirm that everything is as it should be, he says in the press release.
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