– Last year we saw several cases of fraud where people were defrauded of many hundreds of thousands of kroner. That’s what senior advisor Johannes Vallesverd at Nkom says. He also leads an expert group against digital fraud, which has been put together by Nkom, Økokrim, telephone providers and Finans Norge. The enormous and growing scale of digital fraud is the reason why Nkom this week sent a letter to Norwegian telecom operators asking them to take stricter measures. Annually, it is estimated that NOK 600 million is lost to international fraud. 100 million fraudulent calls are stopped every year. Johannes Vallesverd works at Nkom and leads an expert group against digital fraud, which is made up of Nkom, Økokrim, telephone providers and Finans Norge. Photo: National Communications Authority – The telephone operators are already doing a lot today, but there is still a lot that needs to be worked on more, says Vallesverd. In particular, there has been an increase in spoofing, a fraud method where a criminal actor falsifies who the sender is. VG wrote on Friday about fraudsters who have usurped the telephone number of a Norwegian policewoman and used this to deceive countless people in the population. Digital fraud methods Criminals use several different methods to trick people into handing over money or sensitive information that can be used for profit. While many have gradually become familiar with the term phising, recently we have seen increasing attempts at telephone fraud which are often categorized as smishing and spoofing. Phishing: Can be translated in Norwegian as phishing, and refers to fraud that comes in the form of messages online. The most widespread are fake e-mails. Smishing: A form of fraud via SMS where an attacker tries to trick you into giving up sensitive information, such as passwords or bank details. The method works in the same way as phishing. But instead of sending emails, the attacker uses text messages to try to trick you. Spoofing: A technique that allows fraudsters to pretend to contact you from a Norwegian number or safe IP address. To carry out phone spoofing, fraudsters use software that masks the original number they are calling from. Thus, the call can look like it is coming from a Norwegian number, which often inspires more trust than foreign numbers. All methods involve social manipulation, where the aim is to trick you into providing information or values. Sources: Nettvett.no, Telenor Nkom and the telephone operators are only seeing more and more of such fraudulent attempts. – There is an absolutely enormous amount of fraudulent traffic, says Vallesverd. He does not want to go into too much detail about exactly what the new measures entail overall, but a central point is that the telecommunications providers are now being told to cooperate even more closely than before to stop fraud attempts. – What we can say is that it will concretely help to stop calls concerning foreign traffic to Norwegian numbers. news has seen the letter that Nkom has sent the operators. It states, among other things, that the providers of public telephone services must – as far as it is technically possible and financially justifiable – block calls from fraudsters. – Do you think the telephone operators do too little today? – We have asked them to intensify the measures. They do a lot, but we want them to do more. Positive providers The collaboration will take place around traffic from abroad. It is mainly the three mobile network owners Telenor, Telia and Ice that receive this traffic. All three providers are positive about the new measures. – We are positive about increased cooperation with both industry colleagues and the authorities in order to stop fraud attempts against Norwegian mobile customers, says communications advisor Ellen Scheen at Telia. Telenor says that they have already implemented their own measures. – We have already implemented a security filter that has drastically reduced the amount of spoofing calls to Telenor’s mobile customers, says Thorbjørn Busch, senior security advisor at Telenor. Ice also says that they are positive about measures that can help limit spoofing and other digital fraud attempts against customers. – We are already in good dialogue with the authorities about this and are open to cooperation with the other telecom operators for the benefit of the customers, says communications manager Andreas Veggeland at Ice. Vallesverd in Nkom hopes the new measures will be put in place during the next six months. – There are many pieces that need to be put in place and several players are involved, he says. He encourages anyone who is exposed to fraud to report this to the police.
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Nkom asks telephone operators to tighten measures after explosion in telephone fraud – news Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
