When BankID communicates with the public and makes changes to its products and services, there is always someone who tries to take advantage of it. For example, have you ever received an SMS telling you to open a link because your BankID has allegedly been blocked? Well, such inquiries are attempts at fraud and something you must be aware of.
November 3 2022
These inquiries do not necessarily only come via SMS. They can also come via e-mail or phone. A simple rule of thumb is that no serious actors will ask you to provide login details by phone, SMS or e-mail.
It is referred to as "phishing", and it is largely based on the trust consumers have in trustworthy brands such as their bank and BankID. Anyone can be exposed to such attempts, but we see that especially those over 60 are exposed. "Olga fraud" it is called when elderly people who may be less digital are targeted. This means that it is important that everyone stays up-to-date on which measures that reduce the risk of being defrauded.
Per Thorsheim, security expert at BankID BankAxept, urge people to be attentive.
– In fraud attempts over SMS, the messenger looks credible, while the content seems suspicious. They are often characterized by asking you to follow a link to fix something urgent. They often contain typos and a link that looks abnormal, says Per Thorsheim, security expert at BankID BankAxept.
– In e-mails, there may be other characteristics that reveal attempted fraud. First, you should check whether the messenger address looks credible and is spelled correctly. You should also check the URLs of any links by hovering over them. If these look suspicious, we recommend deleting the e-mail, Thorsheim continues, and encourages you to check with your bank if you are in doubt as to whether you have been the victim of an attempted fraud.
Take precautions and expose fraud with these measures:
• Never provide BankID information to others, neither friends, family nor the bank.
• Alternatively, you can ask someone close to you to guide you. Then you should log in yourself and enter your password, without anyone seeing it.
• BankID or the bank never ask you to enter codes and passwords via e-mail or telephone.
• Check whether you have received e-mails from the same e-mail address in the past.
• BankID will never send SMS messages containing links. If you receive an SMS with a link from someone pretending to be BankID, this is a fraud.
• Use a unique password for BankID. Feel free to use a simple and positive sentence that is easy to remember. And remember that you can use spaces in your BankID password! This will count as a special character.
• Rather contact your bank one extra time than none at all if you suspect fraud.
This is how the fraud attempts can look like:
Note the names of the messenger and the links provided. These are examples of how the fraudsters use names that abuse the BankID name to deceive you.
