The fraud can start with phishing where the victim provides personal and bank details after a text message that promises, for example, a winter fuel allowance payment, or an offer for cheap products on social media.
After a few weeks, enough time for the victim to forget about supplying details, the fraudster will contact them, claiming to be from their bank. They will know which bank because of the details already supplied by the victim.
They may ask the victim to confirm the address, or postcode, they have on file, in order to portray legitimacy. The criminal will then ask about some transactions, all fabricated, and when the victim says they don’t recognise them, the criminal will claim they have been stopped, and more measures must be taken to secure the account. They will say that a notification is on the way, and the victim should approve it to secure the account.
“The notification the customer receives is entirely legitimate, as it’s the genuine notification your bank sends when a new Apple Pay or Google Pay card is being added to a device, or the bank may send you a code via text, or in the app. They have just added your card into their Apple Pay or Google Pay and you are now receiving a text, or a notification, to approve it,” Antoniou says.
From there, the criminals can act quickly and empty the account of the victim. “They drain accounts at high-value merchants, such as tech stores and fashion retailers. The appeal is simple: electronics and designer goods can be quickly resold on the secondary market with minimal loss of profit during the money-laundering process,” she adds.
www.theguardian.com
Nevertheless, scammers do what they do because they're too lazy to do an honest job. Therefore the most appropriate punishment for them isn't even regular prison. It's getting sent to a labor camp. At a coal mine. In Siberia.
