The Icelandic Police: Icelanders attacked on Facebook
Organized crime group is now targeting Icelanders on Facebook with fraudulent advertisements. Screenshot/Reykjavik Metropolitan Police
The Icelandic police say that a “big attack” on Icelanders is currently taking place on Facebook.
In the police’s Facebook account, it says that the police and others who follow cyber attacks have been aware of a large-scale attempt to scam Icelanders.
“The criminals’ preparations are high-quality. They start with advertisements on Facebook where they have stolen pictures of well-known Icelanders. The purpose is to hunt people into false investments and fraudulent schemes, and thus steal money from people,” the report says.
Here is an example of a fraudulent post on Facebook. Screenshot/Reykjavik Metropolitan Police
Display examples of fraudulent advertising
The police then display screen-shots of fraudulent advertisements and fake news sites. The police say it is best to report such entries to Facebook as fraud or ignore them completely.
“If you click on them, you go to a fake page that looks like mbl.is but it’s not at all, and from there you are being enticed to fraudulent sites that look like investment sites, but have the sole purpose of scamming people, no real investment takes place.”
Here is an example of where people end up after clicking one of the fake ads on Facebook. The website looks like it's mbl.is but it most certainly is not. Screenshot/Reykjavik Metropolitan Police
The police say that there is a well-organized crime group behind the facebook scam. Screenshot/Reykjavik Metropolitan Police
Well-organized group of criminals
The police say that this particular crime group has prepared a large number of advertisements and also set up online sites to support the crime scheme.
“The extent of the fraud indicates that there is a well-organized group of criminals behind it.”
