Identity theft

There is a new surge in phishing attacks with fake e-mails about outstanding liabilities to the National Revenue Agency (NRA). Fake messages are sent on behalf of private enforcement agents, the NRA has warned. In recent days, thousands of Bulgarians have received intimidating letters on their e-mails.

The Plovdiv District Prosecution Office has broken a criminal operation for money laundering related to computer fraud (phishing) outside Bulgaria. This emerged at a news conference in Plovdiv on Monday given by District Prosecutor Roumen Popov, anti-organized crime unit chief Dimiter Alexandrov and supervising prosecutor Peter Petrov.

Bulgarian women have been cheated out of thousands of levs through online scams. General Directorate Combatting Organized Crime (GDBOP) reported a case when a record BGN 400,000 was transferred abroad. Women become victims of love affairs, and scammers turn out to be mainly cybercriminals from North Africa.

A branch known as the "white hat hackers," set up within the Communication Technologies Authority (BTK), has been tracing abusive social media accounts following reports that there were videos on YouTube with child abuse content.

Cyber police forces also have taken action to identify social media accounts sharing content that could tantamount to abuse.

This is when attackers secretly alter communications between two sides and steal key information, such as passwords, messages or credit card numbers.

The cybercrime unit of the Hellenic Police (ELAS) has warned the public about a spike in online fraud and fake news regarding the Covid-19 epidemic.

In 2019, approximately 1 in 3 EU citizens aged 16 to 74 reported security-related incidents when using the internet for private purposes in 2019 in the last 12 months.

Just over half of Cypriots stated they are well informed to protect themselves from cybercrime, a Eurobarometer released by European Commission on Wednesday showed.

Yesterday, the European Commission released its latest survey on Europeans' attitudes towards cybercrime.

At least three Greek government websites were targeted by the global hackers' group Sea Turtle in April of last year, Kathimerini understands.

The aim of the hackers was to steal employees' passwords and gain access to the internal networks of sensitive state services.