Scammers posing as NBP
In recent days there have been attempts by scammers posing as employees of Narodowy Bank Polski to gain access to private bank accounts. Claiming to be NBP employees, they call to provide information about a fake cryptocurrency exchange that they supposedly run, confirming it with unlawful use of the NBP logo. Narodowy Bank Polski and the Polish Financial Supervision Authority are warning you against taking up such fake offers concerning a cryptocurrency exchange that does not exist in reality.
It is thanks to the reference to NBP, an institution enjoying authority, that the offer may seem a secure and trustworthy opportunity to make a large profit in a short time. In fact, it is aimed at phishing for data and stealing money. Briefly, the scheme is carried out in the following way: after signing up for a fake cryptocurrency exchange website, the user is contacted by scammers, who offer their help with data verification. They talk the victim into installing remote support software for their computer or telephone. By doing so, they obtain access to the device and can, as a consequence, also obtain access to the victim’s bank account.
You should not believe in the promise of a large profit in a short time! Narodowy Bank Polski does not provide services to individual customers, nor does it run a cryptocurrency exchange or issue cryptocurrencies!
In connection with the above alert, it is worth signalling that attempts by online criminals at obtaining data enabling them to steal funds from customers’ bank accounts are becoming increasingly common. Criminals frequently pretend to be working for financial institutions which enjoy great public confidence such as Narodowy Bank Polski. In addition, we are also noticing more and more attempts at initiating so-called Nigerian scams. They involve the extortion of money for the payment of alleged legal fees in connection with a stopped foreign transfer of an inheritance from an unknown relative or of a prize in a lottery which does not require participants to sign up to. The scam, conducted from unverifiable websites, is authenticated by sending to the potential victim false documents on the alleged blocking of the transfer by an institution having authority and public confidence in a given country (scammers often use the pretext of suspected money laundering, etc.). Such documents bear, for example, an NBP logo copied from the internet and data of NBP employees which are publicly available on NBP websites. Next, the criminals request the potential victims to transfer money, e.g. to pay for legal actions required to unblock the alleged transfer. Obviously, no transfer whatsoever will ever be unblocked and the criminals will disappear with the stolen fees.
NBP would like to remind you again that it does not participate in the verification of transfers to personal bank accounts of individuals, nor does it provide day-to-day banking services to individual customers.