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NBS warning: What is a scam? Don’t be deceived!

16 Aug 2018

Have you ever received an e-mail, SMS or telephone call from a seemingly trustworthy person or financial institution (for example, a bank, insurance undertaking or investment firm)? Were you asked to send any personal data such as, for example, a bank account number, PIN code or password, or any other sensitive personal information? Or were you perhaps asked to make a payment or pay a fee in advance? Such contact is very likely to be a scam, i.e. a fraud.

What should you watch out for?

  • E-mail or SMS messages that appear trustworthy at first glance may be suspicious on closer inspection, perhaps because, for example, the name or address of the sender is unknown or odd, or the message contains grammatical and stylistic errors.
  • An e-mail may ask you to click on a link. Such a link may direct you to a fraudulent website where you are asked to send personal data under a pretext: for example, to send your online banking login data for the purposes of updating an online banking service.
  • A fraudulent website may appear bona fide, but the observant visitor will note suspicious elements, for example the following:
    • the absence of the green padlock in the web address bar,
    • the absence of the HTTP Secure (HTTPS) certification,
    • flawed graphics,
    • problems with webpage loading,
    • grammatical mistakes.

How do scams work?

If you enter the requested personal data, such as, for example, a bank account number, user name or password, that data could be misused in order to steal money from your account or credit card.

What should you do if you become a victim of a scam?

  • Immediately inform your financial institution.
  • Inform the police at the station closest to where you live.
  • Inform Národná banka Slovenska, which will examine whether a fraud has occurred and may issue a public alert. In this way you can help other consumers.

Tips

  • Never reply to such e-mails, SMSs or telephone calls, and never click on any attachments or links they contain.
  • Be aware that legitimate financial institutions will never call or write to you in order to request or verify your personal data.

National Bank of Slovakia
Communications Section
Imricha Karvasa 1, 813 25 Bratislava, Slovak Republic
Tel.: +421-2-5787 2142, +421-2-5865 2142, +421-2-5787 2169, +421-2-5865 2169
Internet: http://www.nbs.sk

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