The number of online frauds has increased considerably in Romania

The number of online frauds has increased considerably in Romania. In Bistrita-Nasaud county, almost every day a person falls prey to online scams. In the first half of the year, no fewer than 130 complaints were registered by police. One man lost 8.000 lei because he replied to an SMS asking him for data to unblock his bank account, RRA correspondent Cristiana Sabau reports.

The man who lost 8.000 lei apparently received an SMS from the bank informing him that his account was deactivated. To fix the problem, he had to re-enter his details on a website, a faithful copy of the bank's official website. Chief Superintendent Claudiu Jurcan of the Bistrita-Nasaud County Police Inspectorate says the man is just one of three young men from Teleorman who sent such messages across the country.

Claudiu Jurcan: They created quite significant damage. We started that investigation from a crime with damages of 8.000 lei, but there are multiple crimes committed by these perpetrators at national level, depending on how the injured parties responded to those spam messages.

Naivety will cost those who rushed to respond.

Claudiu Jurcan: We won't be able to recover the significant damage, as they were buying goods and selling them at discounted prices with the money embezzled from the various accounts. The criminal case is still pending, the three are in custody. We will now try to establish as much as we can about the criminal activity of all of them and the involvement of each of them.

In the first half of this year, police officers in Bistrita registered 70 more complaints of online fraud than in the same period last year.

Translated by: Radu Matei