Between 1st and 14th November 2021 Latvia’s State Police departments all over the country received information about international scams involving EUR 208 000, as reported by the police.
Residents who agreed to participate in questionable investment platforms are the ones who lost the most money. Some resident of Vidzeme lost EUR 91 000 to such an investment scam, a resident of Latgale lost about EUR 35 000, a person in Zemgale lost more than EUR 11 000 and a person in Riga – about EUR 10 000.
Scams when criminals pretend to be bank employees or illegally use DPD Latvia and Omniva Latvia logos remain popular as well.
State Police urges residents to be vigilant and inform relatives and friends, especially elderly people and Russian-speaking people of these scams.
On 2 November police in Jekabpils received a request from a resident, who reported being scammed. The man was approached on Facebook by a stranger. The person made promises of great opportunities working in the cryptocurrency stock market. The man believed him and installed a remote access tool on Skype, providing the stranger full access to his PC.
At first he believed he was being trained and that his investments would bring profits. When he asked about accessing his earnings, it was not paid, and he finally realised he was scammed.
Between 7th and 16th October different amounts of money were transferred by the man. In total, the victim lost EUR 11 106.77.
Police commenced a criminal process.
On 4th November Riga Zemgale Police Department received a request from a man who was scammed out of EUR 10 624. The victim told the police that he invested money into Blockchain website. He said he seemed to get profits from that, but he never received his money.
The reason given to the man as to why no money was paid is that, allegedly a foreign bank had refused to transfer funds to an account in SEB Bank. Later the man was contacted by some people who offered assistance with receiving his money. They requested a cut of 7%. Needless to say, the man never got his money back.
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On 12 November State Police in Valmiera received a request from a man who lost EUR 91 000 to a scam. The victim found a money investment platform on the internet. After receiving consultations about investment options and believing promises of profits, the main pledged his property, borrowed money from friends and took out loans. Between July and October 2021 the man had pledged a total of EUR 91 000.
The man believed the promise of earning EUR 150 000 from that. However, problems appeared when the man decided to withdraw his earnings.
On the same date State Police in Ludza received a request from a local resident who reported having agreed to an offer to participate in stock market deals earlier this autumn. He man said he became a victim of a scam. Criminals stole EUR 12 000 from him and took 11 loans on his name for a total amount of EUR 23 295.
This month there were also numerous cases reported when phone scammers gaining access to their victims’ bank accounts and stealing money from them in one way or another.
State Police urge residents to not trust other people too quickly and always study businesses before making any investment decisions, whether or not those businesses are registered in Latvia and gather information about their economic activities.
It is vital to make sure the service provider has received a license from the Finance and Capital Market Commission (FKTK), because only if a service provider has such a license clients become protected by the state. Information about licensed investment and deposit service providers in Latvia is accessible at FKTK website: https://www.fktk.lv/tirgus–dalibnieki/.
Scammers often use a trick to fool people into believing their investments bring profits – a visual representation of capital growth is shown.
Such a presentation can be programmed by any competent programmer.
Police urge residents to guard their personal information and avoid revealing it over the phone or electronically. Residents are also urged to tell their elderly relatives about scams.
If a person becomes a victim of a scam, they should inform their bank and State Police.
In two weeks Latvian police receive information about EUR 208 000 fraud
