A text message asking your child to wire money to a new number, or a call that appears to be from your bank. In recent years, fraud through “spoofing” has become increasingly common in Sweden.
That’s what Jan Olsson, criminal inspector at the national IT crime centre, says.
– Then the chances increase for the criminals to persuade the vulnerable during the conversation to, for example, give out bank details, he says.
Spoofing means that the fraudster uses another person’s or company’s number, for example to get you to give out sensitive information.
According to Jan Olsson, criminal inspector at the police’s national IT crime centre, this type of fraud has become increasingly common in Sweden in the last five years. Something that even The Gothenburg Post reported on.
– Especially when they call our elderly and pretend to be the bank, or send an SMS and say “Hey, this is your son and I’ve changed my phone number, can you send money to the new phone number”, says Jan Olsson.
Started as a joke
The phenomenon has been around for a long time, according to Jan Olsson it started in the US as a way to, for example, trick his girlfriend that the boss called, as an innocent joke.
There are no figures on how many people are exposed to fraud through spoofing, but according to Jan Olsson, it is noticeable that the fraudsters have discovered advantages in using what appears to be a trusted number.
– It’s the same with SMS, it came another couple of years later. Then they discovered that if I “spoof” a phone number, that SMS grabs hold of a thread that you already have with that actor.
This way you avoid being cheated
In an already ongoing text message conversation with a person, a text message can come from a fraudster all of a sudden. If, however, you reply to the text message, the reply goes to the phone number that is visible, and not to the fraudster.
So far there is no way to protect your phone number. Instead, Jan Olsson advises to think before swishing or handing out sensitive information.
– We have to be vigilant about whether important information is requested from you, or money that you should send. What you should do then is to always call back the person who contacted you.