Customers of Latvia’s four largest banks have been defrauded of a total of ten million euros in the first seven months of this year by confirming payments themselves, according to data released by the Financial Industry Association (FNA).
In total, 3 148 phone scams were prevented in the first seven months of this year, protecting 3.3 million euro, but 3 001 scams were executed, defrauding 6.1 million euro. July saw the lowest number of phone scams since August last year – 268.
Banks are the most successful in protecting people from fake investment offers – 5 934 fraud attempts have been prevented since the start of the year, protecting 3.7 million euro. The number of investment scams that have been successfully implemented has reached 1 854, defrauding 3.1 million euro.
According to the FNA, there were 6% fewer phone scams in July than in June, and 42% fewer since May. Since the beginning of the year, banks have been able to prevent 51% of telephone fraud, 76% of investment fraud and 56% of other types of fraud.
FNA Board Member Jānis Brazovskis points out that the number of phone scams has been decreasing in recent months, which is a positive trend – people have become more vigilant and more concerned about the security of their data. However, citizens, especially businesses, need to be vigilant as there is a high risk that criminals can defraud individuals of significant amounts of money if they are willing to hand over their own data to scammers.
“It is important that all parties involved continue to educate the public and take appropriate measures to combat financial fraud, while the public regularly improves its financial literacy, i.e. knows the latest fraud techniques used by criminals and is able to react accordingly,” Brazovskis stresses.
The FNA reminds that fraudsters are very skilled at lying and often impersonate bankers, police, postal and government officials,
by calling, texting, emailing and even using artificial intelligence to call for immediate action, stating that it is very important and urgent. Fraudsters create a sense of anxiety and fear in the potential victim, deceiving them into thinking that if they do not act now, they will be scammed of all their money. If in doubt, the FNA encourages you to contact the institution or bank where the fraudster is posing as an employee, using only their official contact details, or to contact a relative.
The FNA strongly urges financial managers and accountants to pay particular attention to such fraud attempts. According to FNA members, as public awareness of fraud has increased, more attention is being paid to businesses and to people who have already been defrauded.
It has already been reported that customers of Latvia’s four largest banks were defrauded of a total of 12.662 million euros last year, 5.2% more than in 2022. A total of 7 795 fraud cases were committed in 2023, 45.6% more than in 2022.
At the same time, 13 537 fraud cases were prevented in 2023 for a total of 9.218 million euro.
Swedbank is the largest bank in Latvia by assets, followed by SEB banka, Citadele and the Latvian branch of Luminor Bank.
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