Fake Instagram sweepstakes, offers for good loans, unknown relatives who leave an inheritance, love offers from soldiers... these are just some of the lures that individuals use to benefit or harm users on the Internet and social networks.
Jakša Backović, head of the group for combating visco-technological crimes of the Police Administration, said in an interview with "Vijesti" that the victim of fraud can be anyone, regardless of age, but that it is most often people over 18 to 50 years of age.
He also explains that men are mostly victims of fraud, while women are the targets of stalkers, their safety is more often threatened or they are blackmailed by videos of former partners...
Instagram account owners themselves to educate followers
The owners of the crystal shop in Podgorica recently organized a prize draw on Instagram. Not long after, they noticed that there was an invitation to an alleged prize draw from an account that uses the same logo and only has a letter difference in the name. In order to receive the reward, the owners of the fake profiles asked the users to leave some personal information, such as a bank card number.
Requests to Instagram to block that account were not helpful, but the owners of the original account, daily and through other networks, informed followers that the second account was fake.
Backović clarifies that such fraud attempts are not rare, but also that the powers of the police are relatively small and that the criminal offense of misuse of trademarks, names and photographs of persons and companies in Montenegro is prosecuted ex officio.
"That's where company owners can file a private lawsuit," he explains.
It suggests to account owners that they themselves participate in the education of followers and strengthen the network of clients.
"If you notice that their name or photo has been misused, they must strengthen their identity, constantly inform that similar things are happening and inform their clients or the general public that they are not currently organizing any raffle, and if they do, to inform users that this they work exclusively from one profile, which has no less than so many followers and the like," he says.
He suggests to the account owners that they indicate to their followers that there are no two profiles with the same name, and that, if they appear to have the same name, they differ by a letter, two...
"To pay attention to those letter changes in the name of the profile", advises Backović.
Although, as he says, they have not had reports that any of the citizens have been harmed due to a similar Instagram scam, he explains that if someone were to send money abroad and report that he was harmed, such a procedure would be complex.
"Money is difficult to trace, and people who cheat use extremely sophisticated methods to conceal all possible evidence, or they do it from countries whose security services do not provide information so easily and with which we do not have a signed memorandum on international legal assistance and the like." clarifies.
And when it comes to the country with which Montenegro has signed a similar memorandum, Backović adds, such a procedure would still not be simple. The procedure would be extremely complex and would last from six months to a year, he said.
There is also advice for citizens who follow certain profiles and participate in prize games:
"No one will ask you to send them a credit card number, especially not a bank card number and the CVC number on the back of it, as well as the expiration date and the like. To pay close attention when sending data - where they send it, how they send it... to carefully monitor the URL, i.e. the web address where they leave the data", he says and explains that the right address usually contains a clear name - e.g. instagram.com/imeprofila, and those addresses that are extremely long are questionable.
Another piece of advice for users is to search for information about locations where they plan to leave money beforehand and read other people's reviews about that location on the Internet.
Fraudsters often exploit human weaknesses
The head of a high-tech crime group explains that fraudsters on social media exploit human weaknesses and the need for quick money.
So they often give in to information about allegedly fixed secure fixes on the Internet.
"They pay money to people who supposedly give them these safe fixes. When they pay the money, they are not aware that they have been cheated, and that there really are fixes, then they facilitate the fixing of football matches", explains Backović.
He advises citizens not to fall for romantic offers from people from abroad.
"It happens to us that people receive e-mail messages, allegedly talking to soldiers abroad - in Afghanistan, Syria and the like, soldiers who want to settle in Montenegro. Thus began a love affair through e-mail, which would later result in sending money for a plane ticket, sending money for a package to arrive to her from abroad... with the promise that this virtual boyfriend of hers will return all the money when they see each other in Montenegro ", says Backović.
Caution, he adds, is also recommended when shopping on the Internet.
"It often happens that after you have previously searched on the Internet for what to buy, banners pop up on social networks with the very products we were looking for. These are special machines that work on special algorithms, these data are sold to certain companies, among other things, they are also sold to legal companies, but they can also be bought by criminals, who will send you a fake banner. And people get products whose real value is 200, 300 euros, and you can buy it for 9,99 just for a certain holiday in a certain country. And people buy the product, arbitrarily leave the card number and the like, later those card numbers are misused and cause direct damage to the citizens".
Do not look for loans on unknown sites
Enough, he says, of scams in which offers for interest-free and low-interest loans are advertised.
"Citizens engage in fraud simply by asking certain Facebook pages for cash loans of up to 10, 15, 20.000 euros, 50.000, but only before entering the processing, they have to pay the processing, tax... And in this way, only when pay a certain amount, which is not small, they realize that they are actually victims of fraud", explains Backović.
Similar scams, he explains, are usually associated with countries where identity verification during withdrawals is very low.
"Where people can, even with a health card or without an identification document, withdraw a certain amount of money, just by word of mouth. We cannot trace the money that was sent to certain countries", he says, with the advice that loans should never be taken out in that way, from unknown persons and on unknown sites.
Although known for a long time, there are still current scams in which users are informed via networks that, although they did not even play, they won a lottery prize, that they are contacted by alleged distant relatives from abroad and that they have left them an inheritance.
"That an uncle from abroad, whose surname coincidentally is yours, actually mined gold and diamonds, died and supposedly left you millions, but that in return you have to pay a lawyer, a commission, a transfer and then they will pay you the money . One of the human characteristics - the desire for easy money, is evident in these types of criminal acts, and criminals take advantage of that," says Backović.
In the last two or three years, he says, blackmails due to intimate videos have been very pronounced. He explains that such scams start with a person adding you on a social network, usually a beautiful woman, who then asks if you're in the mood for a video call. During the call, she shows intimate parts of her body, persuades the other party to do the same, but the other party does not know that the call is being recorded.
"Soon you get a message that the recording will be forwarded to all your friends, that the video will be published, if you don't pay a certain amount of money," says Backović.
International fraud and lengthy investigations
Investigations in such cases are ongoing.
"A message to the citizens of Montenegro - when you enter the procedure that we are trying to identify, that process is quite weak, because Montenegro is small and none of the services that people use in Montenegro are located on our servers, but all that Montenegrin data the police must request, according to their procedures, rules, memoranda of cooperation, requests for international legal assistance. And those investigations are ongoing," he says.
Unlike those, he adds, investigations related to Montenegro are completed relatively quickly.
"Because the data and the perpetrators are with us. But when we have to involve international subjects, that procedure is much more complicated and longer".
Along with the "Say no" campaign, with which they want to draw attention to sexual abuse on the Internet, the Police Directorate, he says, is constantly working on education. Backović also says that prevention is the best protection when it comes to any type of possible abuse.
According to data from the Draft Cybersecurity Strategy, in 2020, the largest number of frauds via the Internet, abuse of profiles on social networks, and other frauds, including identity theft, were recorded.
"Research has shown that 95 percent of cyber security incidents are the result of human error. All the more, cyber security education must be a part of national activities aimed at raising awareness among different target groups (young people, employees in public administration and the general public)", it says, among other things, in that document.
Password is confidential information
Backović advises Internet users to never give anyone the passwords they use to access e-mail or accounts on social networks.
In addition, he advises that they never use the same passwords when registering for different services.
"That is one of the basic rules. A gmail account must have one password, another on social networks... People usually have one password for everything, and so we have a situation where if someone gets hold of your Facebook account, they will also get hold of your Instagram account, LinkedIn, email... .”
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