Social engineering

Online fraud is becoming a veritable scourge with more than 3,000 cases recorded in 2023 alone, according to cybercrime authorities. 

More specifically, 3,656 cases and 273 attempts were recorded, with only 627 solved so far, while the victims of fraud amounted to 3,733.

An 86-year-old woman fell victim to a telephone scam, losing a significant BGN 26,000 to cunning fraudsters. The Regional Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Haskovo confirmed the unfortunate incident, explaining how the deceptive scammers operated.

Authorities in Varna have detained two individuals suspected of orchestrating a widespread bank phishing scam that has left countless Bulgarians reeling from financial losses.

They set up a scam with fake government letters - What they told their unsuspecting victims

In a heart-wrenching tale of deceit and betrayal, a 61-year-old man fell victim to a love scam orchestrated by a Bulgarian woman, resulting in a staggering loss of BGN 45,000.

A 47-year-old woman was sentenced to eight years in prison by a Thessaloniki court on Monday, for her involvement in a network scamming people via telephone.

The criminal network mainly targeted elderly women, telling them that their close relatives had been involved in car accidents, and that they would need to pay large sums of money for supposed surgeries and other medical costs.

Greece ranks 19th among the states with foreign students in German universities, with 6,886 students studying in the country for the academic year 2022-2023, according to recent data from the Federal Statistical Office of Germany (Destatis) and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).

As it was said, various hacker groups breached security systems, accessed confidential information and demanded ransoms. What should be pointed out is that, according to the information, there is no evidence that these attacks actually took place.

One of the new methods of fraud that has emerged in recent times is to copy the websites of well-known restaurants and to ask the customers to pay a deposit for a fake reservation.

Scammers use artificial intelligence systems to copy the websites of famous restaurants and share all the information about the restaurant on these websites as if they were real.

About 7.2 million euros was charged in the first half of 2023 to debit and credit card holders due to the 31% increase in fraud incidents which raised the amount "embezzled" from cards to €12.5 million (an increase of 29% compared to the second half of 2022).