Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre (EC3), the European Banking Federation and their partners from the public and private sector are kicking off today the #CyberScams awareness campaign as part of the European Cyber Security Month.

Over the next week, law enforcement agencies from all 28 EU Member States, 5 non- EU Member States,  24 national banking associations and banks and many other cybercrime fighters will be raising awareness about this criminal phenomenon. This pan-European endeavour will be driven by a  communication campaign via social media channels and national law enforcement, bank associations and financial institutions.

For this campaign, awareness-raising material has been developed in 27 languages, available for public download, which includes information on the 7 most common online financial scams, and how to avoid them.

The assets belonging to each category will be made available here throughout the week:

  • CEO fraud: scammers pretend to be your CEO or senior representative in the organisation and trick you into paying a fake invoice or making an unauthorised transfer out of the business account.
  • Invoice fraud: they pretend to be one of your clients/suppliers and trick you into paying future invoices into a different bank account.
  • Phishing, Smishing and Vishing: they call you, send you a text message or an email to trick you into sharing your personal, financial or security information.
  • Spoofed bank website fraud: they use bank phishing emails with a link to the spoofed website. Once you click on the link, various methods are used to collect your financial and personal information. The site will look like its legitimate counterpart, with small differences.
  • Romance scam: they pretend to be interested in a romantic relationship. It commonly takes place on online dating websites, but scammers often use social media or email to make contact.
  • Personal data theft: they harvest your personal information via social media channels.
  • Investment and online shopping scams: they make you think you are on a smart investment… or present you with a great fake online offer.