PPA officer: There are fraud scenarios for everyone in Estonia
In what is a veritable fraud epidemic, scammers have devised effective narratives for virtually every person in Estonia, said Jaagup Toompuu of the Central Criminal Police.
We've been talking about these things for so long. Why can't we put a stop to scams?
Today, there is an active scam system targeting every person in Estonia. It really is on the scale of a pandemic — every day, 10 to 11 people fall victim and the schemes are constantly evolving. There are two types of scams currently in widespread use. First, the phone call we discussed today where scammers claim to be sending a parcel or a registered letter. (It turned out Tuesday that the Estonian Artists' Association had lost €700,000 through its chief accountant to such a scheme — ed.) Second, a very common one involves claims that an electricity meter or gas meter needs to be replaced.
So basically, is there some kind of tailored story for every person — a way to approach them and figure out how they might hand over money?
Yes. No one is 100 percent protected. Any one of us can be caught off guard at the right moment with the right story. The question is whether they reach us with that story at exactly the right time.
In your opinion, what more should the state, banks or telecom companies be doing? Should there be restrictions, for example, so people can't withdraw more than €500 a day?
People can already set up measures like that themselves and the state is also working on a major legislative amendment that would give banks greater authority to intervene. By the time a case reaches the bank's desk, the person has often already been caught up in the scam call for quite a while.
But when someone calling themselves "the police" or "the Bank of Estonia" contacts you, it can still feel unsettling. What advice do you give people? How can they protect themselves?
The most important thing is to remember that nobody genuinely needs to reach you that urgently or involve you in some kind of operation over the phone. If you have even the slightest doubt, hang up. The police and the bank will always be able to contact you in other ways. If someone wants to keep you on the line and says you must not tell anyone else about the conversation, it's a scam.
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Editor: Marcus Turovski
