Scammers Swindled 64-Year-Old Out of Large Sum with Fake FinanzOnline SMS

A 64-year-old man from Eastern Styria was defrauded of a large five-figure euro amount by unknown individuals on Tuesday. The man had received an SMS supposedly from Finanz-Online and clicked on a link mentioned in it. There, he entered personal data. He was then contacted by a supposed bank employee who, due to "unusual account movements," asked him to grant several push-TAN approvals. After that, the money was gone, according to the police.

64-Year-Old Lost a Lot of Money Through Fake Financial Online Contact

The man from the Eastern Styrian district of Weiz received the deceptively real-looking SMS at midday on Tuesday, indicating an allegedly necessary renewal of his Finanz-Online access data. After entering the data, he was called in the afternoon by the unknown individual who posed as an employee of a financial institution. Under the pretext of supposedly unusual account movements, this person asked the victim to confirm several push-TAN approvals, which the man from Eastern Styria did. Shortly thereafter, it was discovered that a large five-figure amount had been transferred from his account to several domestic and foreign accounts.

Police Warns of Scam

The police have launched an investigation into serious fraud. At the same time, they warned against this scam - authorities, banks, or companies never request the approval of transactions or the entry of sensitive data by phone or message.

(APA/Red)

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