STA, 14 February 2022 - A press conference on online fraud heard on Monday that this type of crime is on the rise in Slovenia, with national Computer Emergency Response Team (SI-CERT) recording 3,197 reports of online fraud last year, of which 30% were reported cases of phishing.
Maruša Maligoj of SI-CERT told the virtual press conference hosted by the NKBM bank that the actual number was actually much higher, as many fraud attempts remained unreported.
Almost a thousand cases of phishing were reported last year, with the most phishing attacks being attempted in the name of delivery services, while online advertisements and banks were also often imitated.
The number of cases of fraud in the form of fake loan offers is also increasing. In 2020, 94 such cases were detected by SI-CERT, and 137 in 2021.
This is also a consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic, as people experienced financial difficulties while banks tightened their conditions for obtaining loans, said Maligoj.
Meanwhile, the police dealt with more than 600 cases of fraud last year, with total damage amounting to more than EUR 12 million, which is a 50% increase in the number of cases and a 150% increase in damage compared to 2020.
David Gracer of the Criminal Police Administration added that the increase in the number of cases of fraud continued this year, as the police had already dealt with more than 80 cases, with total damage amounting to more than EUR 2.5 million.
Police data also show that investment fraud is among the most common types of fraud, followed by e-mail breaches, romance scams, advance-fee scam, fake loan scams, remote access scams under the pretext of technical support and money mules.
Božidar Dajčman, the head of physical and information security management department at NKBM, noted that Slovenian banks had been monitoring phishing attempts and attacks on customers for at least eight years.
"There has been more of such attacks recently. An increase in such attempts was observed in 2021, and the trend continued in 2022 and we do not expect this to change any time soon," he added.
