Incidents of digital fraud increased at a rapid pace in Finland during 2023, according to a report by lobby group Finance Finland (FFI).
Among other methods, digital fraud includes crimes carried out via email, on the web or malicious software.
In a press release, the FFI said that digital fraudsters tried to cheat people in Finland out of almost 77 million euros in 2023, which marked a significant increase on the 47 million euros in such frauds the previous year.
However, banks managed to intervene in a number of last year's cases and return nearly 33 million euros of the funds to their rightful owners.
Victims still however lost more than 44 million euros to the digital schemers.
"Countermeasures and systems by banks are constantly being improved and developed. Unfortunately, when one fraud channel is blocked, criminals already have a new method in mind," FFI's fraud and crime prevention chief Niko Saxholm said in the release.
The FFI noted that most of the victims were targeted in investment scams, which are often long-game schemes. At the beginning, victims sometimes even receive dividends to make the arrangement seem more credible, according to Saxholm.
Problems arise after victims are convinced the arrangements are legitimate.
"Then they take out a 20,000 euro payday loan to invest more, but then they can't access those funds anymore," Saxholm explained.
However, the banks' statistics on digital fraud may only show a small part of the growing problem, as the victims of such crimes often do not inform banks that they've been duped, Saxholm said.
Sometimes that's because the fraud involves cryptocurrencies that do not come to the attention of banks.
"The actual number of investment scams be at least three times higher," Saxholm said, adding that a good way for consumers to protect themselves against digital fraud is to keep a calm head.
"When you receive a slightly suspicious message, it would be good to stop and think about whether it's worth an immediate response," he said, adding that people who fall victim to scammers should not be ashamed to seek help from family — and if necessary — authorities.
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