28/07/2022
Fake calls on behalf of the European police authority are on the rise. Europol is currently warning of this. Citizens receiving such a call should hang up immediately.
The European police authority Europol warns of increasing fake calls. Fraudsters would pretend to be Europol employees and try to get personal data or money, Europol spokesman Jan Op Gen Oorth told the German Press Agency in The Hague on Monday. "These calls are currently increasing, especially in Germany." These calls are wrong in any case, said the spokesman. "Europol never calls citizens." Europol also never asks for personal data or money. Anyone receiving such a call should immediately end the call and notify their local police station. Sometimes an allegedly official Europol telephone number even appears on the display. "You take advantage of a gap in the mobile network and hide your own number," said Op Gen Oorth.
Callers try to scare victims The scam over the phone, the so-called phone spoofing, is not new, as the spokesman said. Fraudsters have long been posing as employees of other official police organizations or ministries, such as Interpol. The scammers claimed that the callee's personal information was used in a crime or that accounts were hacked. "The stories are often very abstruse," said the spokesman. "People play with fear".
According to Europol, in most cases it is difficult to identify the perpetrators. The police department suspects that many of the calls are coming from Southeast Asia. Fraudulent e-mails allegedly in the name of Europol have already been sent. The Federal Network Agency had also announced that more and more complaints were being received about fake calls from alleged police authorities.
