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CRIME

Danish courts issue warning over SMS scam

An SMS scam is in circulation in Denmark involving messages which falsely purport to have been sent by the country’s court system.

Published: 11 June 2024 11:22 CEST
Danish courts issue warning over SMS scam
The Courts of Denmark (Danske Domstole) are being used in a circulating SMS scam. File photo: Bo Amstrup/Ritzau Scanpix

The Courts of Denmark (Danmarks Domstole), the country’s judiciary, has issued a general warning to the public after several people were reported to have received scam text messages claiming to be from the legal system.

In a message displayed on its website, Courts of Denmark said that “several members of the public have stated that they have receive an SMS from the courts in which they are told they have received digital mail from the courts”.

The messages direct the recipient to click on a link within the SMS to “update their information”.

“Courts of Denmark did not send these messages. If you receive such an SMS, delete the SMS,” the message on the Courts of Denmark website reads.

A message alerting the public to an SMS scam was posted to the Courts of Denmark (Dansk Domstole) website on Tuesday. Image: screengrab

 

Police data suggests that criminal SMS scams are proliferating in Denmark.

Special economic crime unit NSK said in April that the number of cases of SMS fraud increased by 130 percent last year.

 

Police say that the scam text messages primarily attempt to appear as though they come from a trustworthy source like a bank, shipping company or the Tax Agency.

They usually contain a link to a false website which enables the scammers to collect and abuse victims’ personal information, such as bank card or digital ID (MitID) data.

Scams of this type are defined by NSK as IT-related crime. Police received over 35,000 reports of this type of crime last year.

The police unit has also encouraged the public to pause and think carefully when they receive and SMS – but also a telephone call or email – which asks them to provide personal details or log in with MitID, Denmark’s digital ID system.

It is a good idea to ask someone you trust for advice before responding or reacting to such messages, NSK also says.

Earlier this month, reports also emerged of a scam involving QR codes which were stuck onto parking payment machines in Copenhagen, with a message saying the code could be used to pay for parking.

But Copenhagen Municipality said that it is not possible to pay for parking in the city via a QR code. It has removed the stickers and reported the scam to police.

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CRIME

‘More Danes than ever’ victims of digital crime

Almost 190,000 people in Denmark were the victims of IT-related crime in 2023, according to new figures.

Published: 14 June 2024 17:15 CEST
'More Danes than ever' victims of digital crime

The number, released by the Danish Crime Prevention Council (Det Kriminalpræventive Råd) represents a significant increase on the previous year’s figure of 150,000.

Denmark’s justice ministry, national police and the University of Copenhagen all work with the Crime Prevention Council in an annual study which tracks the figure through contact with victims.

It represents a trend which is unlikely to slow down in coming years, according to the Council’s director Erik Christensen.

“Technological advances mean that there are more and more doors through which the criminals can walk in relation to scamming us normal members of the public,” he told newswire Ritzau.

The emergence of AI could make it even more likely that people become subjected to digital fraud attempts, he said.

The study found that online payments and abuse of payment information were most common types of fraud defined as IT-related.

But “contact fraud”, in which scammers contact targets by email, telephone or online, is also on the rise.

The figure for that specific type of crime went from 13,000 in 2022 to 47,000 last year.

READ ALSO: Danish courts issue warning over SMS scam

“Our best advice is that if each of us takes good time when we get an email or SMS… and check whether it is [actually] from the Tax Agency, municipality or bank,” Christensen said.

He also advised asking a family member or trusted person for a second opinion before answering any email or SMS, if in doubt.

In the most common type of IT crime – online transactions – some 85,000 people in Denmark last year lost money to scams such as fake web shops or trades with private individuals.

Another form – which hit 64,000 people – involves purchase of a fake or counterfeit item.

Some 76,000 people were victims of having their bank card details stolen and misused, some 19,000 more than in 2022.

“We must move away from shaming people who get scammed because anyone can fall victim to it. Even when you look at these numbers, we know there are also unreported cases,” Christensen said.

The Council director stressed the importance of victims of online fraud not feeling shame over what had happened.

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