During the past year, the Limburg Federal Judicial Police (FJP) has been able to preventatively block 1,000 websites that only seek to extort money from members of the public. All too often these are phishing websites that look like the genuine official sites of banks or other organisations that have access to sensitive information that if misused could result in an individual falling victim to fraud. The work done by FJP Limburg’s data lab is unique in Belgium.
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The Limburg Federal Police's unique data lab has already preventively blocked 1,000 phishing websites
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When purchasing a product through a classified ads website, the buyer is sometimes forwarded a link by the seller to pay for their purchase. However, you need to be wary as these are sometimes phishing websites that bare a striking resemblance to the websites of banks.
Commissioner Manuel Schaeken of FJP Limburg told VRT News that “You can buy these kinds of fake websites for a small sum via private chat groups on social media or on the darknet”.
Report the fraud
Commissioner Schaeken went on to say that “People that fall victim to this kind of scam can of course still report it, but we try to get one step ahead of the scammers and scupper the websites before they are able to scam anyone. It is difficult to do anything retrospectively, particularly if the websites were set up abroad.”
In September 2020, the Federal Judicial Police in Limburg set up a data lab where suspicious websites can be traced shortly after they have become active on the internet.
Commissioner Schaeken explained that “The phishing sites only remain active for a maximum of 48 hours after which the site is taken down and it is very difficult to find traces of it. The sites are often set up in The Netherlands, so it's better for us to track them down in advance.”
Every day new websites are set up that the data lab needs to block. In recent years there has been a substantial increase in cases of online fraud. In order to address this the police are devoting more resources to phishing and other forms of online crime. However, it isn’t always easy to find staff with the relevant IT stills.