Thursday, 12 December 2013 - 19:31
Five arrested in DigiD fraud
At least 54 Groningen students have fallen victim to identity theft through their DigdD account. So far the police arrested five suspects.The suspects, 4 men and 1 woman, have possibly collected a few hundreds of thousands of euros, meant for the Groningen students, reported the Public Prosecutor.
DigiD
Mystic_Mable
Flickr The five would hack into the digital identity of the students and change their online information, collecting allowances, such as care and rent allowances. In June the Groningen police started receiving reports of students who could no longer log on with their DigiD account, the digital signature needed for online transactions, such as changes in study financing for applying for allowances. Every time it would turn out a new account had been requested. Most of the victims lived in student flats in two streets. The five were spotted at one of the flats in November. A witness recognized them, because they had been seen hanging around there before. They were apprehended on the spot. A search at the suspects' homes came up with temporary bank cards and letters about DigiD's. The suspects possibly got their hands on the Citizen Servie Numbers (SSN) of the victims by stealing their mail out of their mail boxes. After simply requesting a new account by filling out an online form with the name, service number, birth date, and address, the suspects would simply put in their account number for the money to be deposited on.
Mystic_Mable
Flickr The five would hack into the digital identity of the students and change their online information, collecting allowances, such as care and rent allowances. In June the Groningen police started receiving reports of students who could no longer log on with their DigiD account, the digital signature needed for online transactions, such as changes in study financing for applying for allowances. Every time it would turn out a new account had been requested. Most of the victims lived in student flats in two streets. The five were spotted at one of the flats in November. A witness recognized them, because they had been seen hanging around there before. They were apprehended on the spot. A search at the suspects' homes came up with temporary bank cards and letters about DigiD's. The suspects possibly got their hands on the Citizen Servie Numbers (SSN) of the victims by stealing their mail out of their mail boxes. After simply requesting a new account by filling out an online form with the name, service number, birth date, and address, the suspects would simply put in their account number for the money to be deposited on.
