In the first nine months of this year, Serbian citizens were defrauded of more than 54 million dinars on social networks, mostly on Facebook and Instagram, and the main internet fraud is “phishing”, according to the data of the National Center for the Prevention of Security Risks.
Jovan Milosavljević from that Center told RTS that it happens that citizens report fraud, but do not say how much money was taken from them, so the data is not complete.
“What is evident is that the amount of lost money is far greater than what we have today as statistical data,” he stated.
He explained that all possible channels are misused for attacks, and that, initially, “phishing” was mostly done via e-mail.
“We are talking about sponsored ads that reach users on their accounts and where a fantastic option of quick earnings is offered in just a few clicks. The concept of the attack is very simple. You are offered the opportunity to earn, for example, by liking certain content on social networks, to earn a certain amount,” Milosavljević said.
He emphasized that, as soon as personal data is requested, additional thought should be given, because as soon as it “sounds too good to be true”, it is very certain that it is not, and he called on citizens to report all suspicious activities to the National Center.
Based on the incidents reported to that Center, he added, a little more than eight million dinars were lost in 2022, and a little more than 15 million dinars in 2023, Beta writes.
