Last year, people in Estonia lost nearly €30 million to scammers. Only a few percent of victims managed to recover the money they lost. The Riigikogu has now passed a law allowing banks to temporarily suspend suspicious payments, communicate with the police and share information with other financial institutions.

Sandra Horma, head of fraud prevention at the Estonian Banking Association, said the change may not initially be welcomed by all customers, as people are generally convinced they want to go through with their transactions. She explained that banks want to protect people in precisely those situations where it is clear to the bank that a customer is communicating with a scammer.

Unusually large amounts

A bank can intervene, for example, when an unusually large sum is being transferred to a new recipient. However, banks cannot intervene in every situation.

For example, cash withdrawals and the use of cash began increasing significantly in 2026. "It was very difficult to do anything at bank branches," Horma acknowledged. She said there have also been cases where people have claimed they need to sell their apartments because they are moving to Russia to receive medical treatment.

In October, the European Court of Justice ruled that if a scammer makes a money transfer without the victim's consent, the bank must also bear responsibility and refund the money to its customer. Although the ruling is considered a landmark decision, legal experts do not expect it to lead to an increase in compensation payments in Estonia.

Banks not responsible if customer trusts scammers

Attorney Ksenia Kravtšenko said that if a customer receives a phone call, enters their security credentials and hands them over to a scammer, the bank does not consider the transaction an unauthorized payment because the customer has placed their trust in someone they should not have trusted.

Just a few months ago, Estonia was considering a measure to better prevent fraud that would stop people from entering Smart-ID PIN codes while on a phone call. Although the solution is now ready, the plan was abandoned because customers prefer convenience over security.

Kalev Pihl, the creator of Smart-ID, explained that when a group of friends gets together and decides to buy tickets, they need to make or authorize payments. "If they were on a WhatsApp or Messenger call at the same time, the call would be disconnected. They wouldn't be able to use those same calling services to carry out the transactions," he explained.

Pihl acknowledged that he had identified more such use cases than he initially expected.

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