In the past week, a fake Swish app has been used for a number of payments in Varberg, mainly for purchases in restaurants.
The app is identical to the original, but lacks the feature that makes real transactions.
– In these cases, we are talking about thousands of Swedish kronor each time. We can assume that more people have been cheated of smaller amounts, say the municipal police Ghadi Ghazale to Halland’s News.
READ MORE: Fraudsters pay with fake Swish app – how to protect yourself
Photo: Caisa Rasmussen/TT The fake Swish app is hard to detect
Just like in the real Swish app, you fill in the amount and recipient. You then get a fake confirmation on the screen and can tap the screen to trigger “fireworks” – a trick the sender could previously use to prove the payment is legitimate.
The bluff apps are thus more difficult to detect than before – even if they are not actually apps distributed via the Appstore and Google Play.
– It doesn’t even have to be apps in its traditional sense. What is required is for someone to make a website that looks and behaves as if it were an app, says the IT security expert Karl Emil Nikka to Today’s News.
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Photo: Fredrik Sandberg/TT”The only way to uncover fraud”
So, how do you make sure you don’t get scammed?
For private individuals, it is important to keep track of your own Swish app – has you really received a payment from the sender in question?
Companies and organizations are encouraged to download the Swish Företag app to be able to keep track of payments in real time. Then, in the same way as private individuals, you can ensure that promised payments actually come in.
“It’s the only way you can uncover fraud,” says Karl Emil Nikka. The most important advice in general is to pay attention.
– The basic rule is that you can never trust anything that the customer shows on their screen. It doesn’t matter if you swipe up and down on the customer’s screen because it can’t be trusted, he tells DN.
READ MORE: Police Warning – If You’re Going to Buy This: “Be Careful”