Fraudulent SMS: Tens of thousands of complaints about number misuse

Criminals have once again used fraudulent SMS and chat messages to try to swindle money from surprised citizens. As the Federal Network Agency announced in response to a dpa inquiry, it received 35,034 complaints in this regard in the first half of 2024, around 20,000 fewer than in the same period last year.

The number has fallen, but the level of complaints remains high, the authority said. A third of the complaints (11,152) were about a scam that is also euphemistically called the “grandchild trick”: someone sends a text message or chat message pretending to be a relative or close friend who is unable to make a phone call but urgently needs money. Some victims of the scam – often older people – fall for this and actually transfer money.

In other cases, criminals disguise themselves as a bank or parcel delivery service and ask you to pay outstanding fees or click on a link where you are asked to enter your personal information. In this way, the criminals try to obtain data that they can later use to scam you out of money or to carry out other scams.

Authority switches off numbers

In the case of such misuse of telephone numbers, the Federal Network Agency can intervene and deactivate the number. According to the information, there were 2,170 deactivations in the first half of 2024. However, these are often foreign cell phone numbers, in which case the German supervisory authority can do little.

The text messages are often awkwardly worded and readers with a little more alertness will notice inconsistencies. However, readers sometimes react hastily and enter data or transfer money without becoming suspicious – the criminals rely on this fleeting nature of the consumer or on their good nature when they send their fraudulent messages en masse. The number of unreported cases that do not lead to complaints to the Federal Network Agency is likely to be high.