Total losses residents suffered from fraudsters in cyberspace amounted to more than EUR 14.6 million last year

RIGA - Last year, the total losses Latvian residents suffered from fraudsters in cyberspace amounted to more than EUR 14.6 million euros, according to the information presented by the representatives of the information technology security incident prevention institution Cert.lv at a meeting of the Saeima Strategic Communications Subcommittee today.

According to the data prepared by Cert.lv in its presentation, losses on investments made in questionable places from 2017 to 2021 amounted to more than EUR 8.5 million and almost 300 criminal proceedings have been connection with these fraudulent activities.

Fake bank employees, or people who falsely pretend to be bank employees over the phone, have caused more than EUR 6.5 million in losses to the population, for which 790 criminal proceedings have been initiated.

Varis Teivans, the deputy head of Cert.lv, emphasized that residents need to make sure who the person is contacting them, as well as not to confirm statements about transactions that they do not plan to carry out. He emphasized the possibility of using the institution's active protection solution DNS Firewall, which is available free of charge to citizens and public authorities.

Answering a question from the chairman of the subcommittee Ainars Latkovskis (New Unity) about the use of DNS Firewall, Baiba Kaskina, the head of Cert.lv, pointed out that the service is available at dnsmuris.lv, where it is explained how to create a cyber security solution in the program.

Some institutions in Latvia use links to the address ej.uz, which is the address of a website of Uzbekistan, and using it, information is leaked to this third country, Teivans mentioned.

He also said that dialogue was ongoing with telecommunications companies to reduce the chances of fraudsters falsifying, for example, bank telephone numbers.