Over €1 million stolen through phishing in NL this year

So far this year almost 15 thousand Dutch have fallen victim to phishing scams, the Fraud Help Desk announced on Friday based on the reports it received. Over 1.1 million euros were stolen in these scams, compared to 862 thousand euros in damages throughout all of 2018, NU.nl reports.

Research by the Fraud Help Desk showed that one in ten Dutch people have clicked on a phishing link they received through emails or messages at least once. These messages, and the webpages they link to, are made to look like they came from official agencies or companies like banks, collection agencies or telecom providers. If the victim tries to log in on such a fake site, the cyber criminals gain access to their log-in details.

According to the Fraud Help Desk, cyber criminals are becoming more creative in creating their phishing messages. It is also increasingly difficult to spot a fake site.

In August the government announced that it plans to update the Netherlands' telecom law so that phishing via SMS can more easily be tackled.