How online fraud in Hungary dropped by 30% in just six months – VIDEO

Online fraud cases have gone down by 30 percent in the past six months owing to new legal and police measures, an official said on Monday.

Bence Rétvári, state secretary of the interior ministry, noted that 18 months ago, police set up a 300-strong unit to fight cybercrime, and thanks to their investigations, 114 people out of 819 suspects have been arrested.

Banks are now obliged to bolster protections for their clients against fraudsters, while further measures will be introduced from August to make it easier to catch scammers.

In August last year, a man from Debrecen, who was on holiday in Balatonfüred, filed a complaint after a woman – posing as a bank employee – called him and told him that his account had been hacked and that several transfers had probably been made from there, police.hu said. She asked the victim to download the Anydesk application from a web interface, which he unfortunately did. This gave him access to his current account, and the perpetrators used his online bank account to damage him to the tune of more than five million forints. The money was transferred to several accounts and a significant part of it was withdrawn at a bank branch within a short period of time, but it was also exchanged for jewellery or currency.

Investigators discovered that the fraudsters were members of a foreign organised crime ring, aided by Hungarian accomplices. On 3 October 2023, the investigators, together with the Pest Vármegyei Police Headquarters and the Budapest Police Headquarters, arrested 6 people, who were questioned as suspects and arrests were initiated.

In the last few days, the police have caught another group of perpetrators and this time, in cooperation with the criminal and public area staff of Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok County and Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County, they arrested several stromans.

The 23 stooges took money from ATMs or bank cash points, but several of them tried to launder the money they had obtained from the victims in currency exchanges. They handed them over to their clients and received a commission.

Using these methods, the 42 suspects have so far caused damage to 35 victims nationwide, amounting to some HUF 267 million. Six are currently in custody.

The Economic Protection Department of the Criminal Investigation Directorate of the Veszprém County Police Headquarters is investigating the crime of fraud and money laundering.