Banks, Police join to block internet scammer accounts

Four of the biggest Dutch banks, Abn Amro, ING, Rabobank and SNS Reaal are going to work together with the Public Prosecution Authority (OM) and the National internet Scamming Hotline (LMIO) to work on a database of internet scams, and more information on fraudulent websites, Het Parool reports.  The banks are drawing up a covenant, which makes information-sharing among banks and government institutions more simple, which will make catching scammers easier. If the police has enough reports, then addresses and bank account information can be shared with banks, who can then in turn block accounts and prevent more victims. In the past, the process of sharing sensitive information with banks has been too slow, giving internet criminals sufficient time to funnel the money away from the authorities' eyes. Speed is the key in this operation. Het Parool writes that fake sites that show up on Friday and disappear on monday can make €30,000 in one weekend. In one year, there were 48,000 reports of people losing money. This amount of money lost was €12 million. According to the paper, the scheme has been in its pilot phase for one year. In that time, hundreds of accounts of fraudsters have already been blocked. The police has a 24 hour chat function available via mijnpolitie.nl, where people can get information from the past hours on complaints, and the names of websites. Other websites such as thuiswinkel.org and keurmerk.info give information of shops that have connected themselves with these sites to make sure that they are legitimate.