The General Directorate for Combating Organized Crime (GDBOP) warns of a financial fraud in which the name of the service is misused. Thus, fraudsters deceive people over the phone that they are assisting in preventing a crime and an attempt to drain their bank accounts. At the same time, the goal of the process is to withdraw a loan or transfer money in favor of the fraudsters, the Ministry of Internal Affairs indicates.
When a phone call is made from an unknown number, a man, most often presenting himself as "Commissioner Petar Dimitrov Andonov from the Directorate of Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism", informs a bank client that he is a victim of financial fraud, which he is investigating, and demands assistance to prevent the crime. The most common name cited is a person - Simeon Angelov Simeonov, who, with a false power of attorney, attempted to withdraw part of the savings or a loan on behalf of the victim.
After the victim of the fraud hears that he is talking to an employee of the Directorate of Anti-Money Laundering and that at that moment his bank account is being drained, a request follows to share his personal and bank data, necessary to start the procedure. The scammers claim that they are doing everything for the benefit of the victim.
Part of the procedure involves transferring the amount allegedly withdrawn from the account to the financial institution, which is the scammers' account. The client can choose whether to immediately transfer money to the scammers on the provided account, if they have it available in this or another bank, or to withdraw credit - online or physically, which they then hand over online or physically to persons who will be waiting for it in front of the bank.
The persuasion of the need to follow this procedure is accompanied by assurances that a fictitious employee of the Central Bank will personally refund the transferred amount to the client's account in the relevant bank within hours. Additionally, an email with attached files is sent. The characteristic feature is that the documents are sent from email addresses that appear to come from the GDBOP and a banking institution.
For even greater credibility, the victim is asked to wait on the line until he is connected successively to a "bank employee" and a "central bank employee", who will personally confirm the information already received from the "GDBOP commissioner". Most often, the alleged representative is a woman, presenting herself as Antoaneta Ivanova Georgieva. She confirms that the procedure requires the consumer to either transfer available funds or withdraw a consumer loan, which will be refunded. She also draws attention to the "condition" in the documents that if the procedure is not followed, the client is subject to criminal liability and sanctions, including even confiscation of property and blocking of accounts until the completion of the pre-trial proceedings to uncover the crime.
A characteristic of the new financial fraud is that the entire time - from the call to the transfer of the money to the fraudsters - the victim is kept on the phone and is not given the opportunity to communicate or verify the information provided.
The calls come from Bulgarian phone numbers, most often unknown and different, since the fraudsters use internet telephony. Calls have also been registered from real numbers of institutions or private individuals, "set up" by the fraudsters for the purposes of the scheme. And the imaginary police officers and representatives of the BNB have a soft accent.
Directorate "Cybercrime" of the Directorate of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Department is already working on several signals received by phone and in person on Monday. From them it is clear that the calls on behalf of the service began at the end of last week, and within hours several attempts to withdraw loans and refund withdrawn amounts from potential victims were prevented. In two of the cases, they were worth 20,000 leva and 70,000 leva.
The Ministry of Interior reminds that anyone who becomes the subject of such a crime, which demands to immediately withdraw or transfer funds to unknown bank accounts - to immediately terminate the communication, contact the servicing bank, file a report at 112, at the nearest department of the Ministry of Interior or at the Directorate of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Department.