It can certainly be said that there is a lot of cheating in this country and many people are familiar with receiving various messages sent regularly, whether it comes to the email address or directly to the phone.
The message appears to be from companies such as the Post Office, DHL and others where they want people to enter their card details via a payment link.
In the last year, the victims of network of scammers lost around ISK 254.445.158. A total that was reported to the police. Since statistics have been compiled since the end of 2017, the total measurable damage from cybercrime in Iceland has been ISK 1.280.627.378.
The most extreme case of this year was a man who lost 79.696.224 ISK. in 53 days. After the criminals had emptied his accounts, they instructed him to take loans from all three of Iceland’s largest commercial banks.
The scammers can appear in various forms such as fake company pages, fake lovers, investor pages, product fraud, rent fraud, extortion etc.
There is also a huge epidemic of hackers hijacking social media pages of individuals with the intention of blackmailing the individual into paying them money to get the site back.
Singer and entertainer Jógvan Hansen recently fell into the clutches of hackers as his Facebook page, which he had been with since 2008, along with his Instagram page with over 10,000 followers, was hijacked. The hackers pretended to be from Instagram and were offering him the blue badge that many people get on Instagram after a certain number of followers. At the same time, Jógvan had just applied for the blue badge and was therefore extremely happy with the message.
“Of course I agreed to receive the badge by clicking on the link that came with the mail, but by then they had already hacked into my accounts” – Jógvan
The case was that as soon as he clicked the button, he had already let them into his account and they then quickly started to replace his email address and change his password so that he could 100% not get into his account … .
“During this, they kept calling me and harassing me, insisting that if I didn’t pay them, they would delete my account. I do not take part in this kind of blackmail and of course it is out of the question to pay them a single króna..” – Jógvan
Jógvan decided not to let this get to him and created new accounts.. You can show him support and follow his new Instagram page here.
”This surprised me a lot and I had no idea that there was anything fishy about it until I got the message, ”Hi dude, I hacked your instagram, facebook and snapchat.. I will give it back for a fee. If you block or don’t reply I will delete it”.. This is of course a shock, but I decided to stay calm through this and move on with life..” – Jógvan
This has become a huge loss for the nation and for those who end up in such a devastating experience, and the police strongly advises against paying them money in order to regain access. Because in fact it lights an even more fire under them.
It is important to be careful when it comes to all messages and communications through the online world, no matter in what form they appear. Hackers are getting smarter every day and the most important thing is to never click on a link or enter payment information without being 100% sure that the contact they are sending you is from the company itself. If there is any doubt, you should contact the relevant company directly and ask.
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