Scammers posing as bank employees again steal thousands of euros from Estonian residents

TALLINN – Scammers posing as bank employees have again defrauded residents of Estonia of thousands of euros. 

On Thursday, Sept. 16, the police were informed that a 47-year-old woman living in the Tallinn district of Lasnamae received a phone call from a person introducing themselves as a Swedbank employee, who said that a suspicious transaction had been made from her account. The woman was then asked to log on to her online bank account for a piece of protective software to be installed on her bank card. The woman did as requested and later discovered that 6,200 euros and 90 cents had been transferred from her account into an account belonging to an unknown person.

On Sept. 17, a 51-year-old man living in the district of Haabersti received a phone call allegedly from Swedbank informing him that someone was trying to execute a payment to an online store from his bank account. The caller conversed with the would-be victim at length and then asked him to long on to his online bank account, where he was requested to enter his Smart-ID PIN-2, which he did.

After that, a payment of 8,000 euros was immediately made from his account into the account of an unknown person with another bank. The man at once drove to the bank branch and made a request for the money to be recalled.

On Sept. 17, the police were informed that the day before, a 38-year-old man living in Lasnamae had received a phone call from a person introducing themselves as an employee of Swedbank, who claimed that suspicious transfers had been made from the man's bank account. The man was then asked to log on to his online bank to install a piece of protective software program on the bank card. 

After the man who later filed the crime report had done as he was asked to, he discovered that 9,998 euros and 32 cents had been transferred from his account to another account.