Estonian Woman Loses €10,000 to Scammers Posing as Court and Bank Staff

A woman named Anna, who lives in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, has fallen victim to telephone fraudsters. Following their instructions, she transferred thousands of euros, a total of 10,000 euros, to accounts where the money was supposedly being kept safe from criminals. The case was described by the news portal Delfi.

The first call

One June morning, Anna was cycling along a street in Tallinn when a man with a Russian accent phoned her. He claimed to work for the Tartu County Court. Earlier the same morning she had received an email in the court's name saying her husband had founded a new company.

Anna had a hectic day: she was moving and had to meet the owner of her new apartment. She was also going through a difficult personal period and had been sleeping badly for some time. The caller demanded that she confirm her identity by entering the PIN1 code of Mobiil-ID, an electronic identification tool used in Estonia. Anna entered it, but immediately realised she was dealing with scammers and said so aloud. The caller denied it.

The second call

After Anna reached her home, another unknown person called. This time he introduced himself as a cybersecurity specialist at the Bank of Estonia. He said her personal data had been misused, a Smart-ID account had been created in her name and someone was trying to obtain loans. Anna felt relieved that the fraud had been detected. The caller spoke flawless Estonian and explained how phone scams work. Anna admits she simply trusted him.