TIRANA, Nov 9 /ATA/ – State Police has warned citizens about new SMS phishing campaigns, known as “smishing”, in which scammers impersonate public institutions and service providers to steal personal and banking information.
The Cybercrime Investigation Directorate has identified fraudulent messages falsely claiming to come from Tirana Municipality and its Parking Service, the General Directorate of Road Transport Services (DPSHTRR) and Albanian Post.
The messages falsely notify recipients of unpaid parking fees, traffic fines or the need to update their addresses to ensure postal deliveries, police said.
They contain links directing users to fake websites designed to imitate official institutional platforms. The scammers seek to obtain bank card numbers, expiry dates, CVV/CVC security codes and verification codes to carry out unauthorised transactions and steal money from victims’ accounts.
According to police, the perpetrators exploit warnings about unpaid charges, short payment deadlines and alleged postal delivery problems to create a sense of urgency and pressure recipients into acting without checking whether the messages are genuine.
The State Police urged citizens not to click on suspicious links received by SMS, regardless of the institution they claim to represent, or enter banking details and security codes on websites accessed through such messages.
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