According to the police, more than 70 crimes have been reported across Austria, and the total damage has already amounted to around 50,000 euros, according to the Upper Austrian state police.
Goods picked up by courier
The scammers always follow the same scheme. They contact their victims because of their sales ads on online marketplaces such as “Willhaben” or “Ebay”.
In their inquiries, the crooks pretend to be interested in buying, but state that they cannot pick up the goods themselves due to illness or contact restrictions. For “security reasons” they therefore suggest delivery by “post courier” – but the domestic post office does not offer such a service.
If the seller agrees to this, the scammers only want to communicate via WhatsApp, email or foreign telephone numbers. The seller is sent a link to a fake Swiss Post website that looks deceptively real (post.service-delivery.info or post-service.online).
Personal payment data must be entered there in order to pay the alleged “courier costs” in advance. These would be refunded along with the item price, it said. However, these websites give the fraudsters access to the payment data entered by the sellers. As soon as they then confirm the received push TAN SMS for transferring the courier costs, a money transfer is often carried out to foreign bank accounts or payment service providers.
The majority of the transfers made as a result have so far amounted to between 60 and 3000 euros throughout Austria, the police said in a broadcast yesterday.
It therefore warns again urgently against such “business” and advises paying attention to the Internet address provided and under no circumstances disclosing credit card details in such cases. The real website of Austrian Post is www.post.at – the endings .info or .site indicate fake websites.
Contact termination
Under no circumstances should you switch from sales platforms to other communication channels, as this is where the traceability of the sales platforms ends and messages can be deleted. In such cases, contact should be broken off immediately and a complaint filed.
In the case of a transfer that has already been made, the police advise contacting the bank immediately to obtain a possible stop or recovery of the payment. (never)
Source: Nachrichten
