DistantNews
Support us
DNB Warns of Targeted Attacks on Business Accounts by Swedish Criminals
🇳🇴 Norway /Crime & Justice

DNB Warns of Targeted Attacks on Business Accounts by Swedish Criminals

From Aftenposten · () Norwegian

Translated from Norwegian, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News Named sources Ongoing story
  • DNB bank warns of targeted phishing scams by Swedish gang members against Norwegian business accounts.
  • Scammers are specifically targeting individuals with access to company accounts, a new tactic.
  • In July, DNB recorded ten such cases with a total attempted fraud of approximately 10 million Norwegian kroner.

DNB bank is sounding the alarm about a new wave of targeted phishing scams orchestrated by Swedish criminal gangs aimed at Norwegian business accounts. This sophisticated operation marks a significant escalation, as the fraudsters are now specifically identifying and targeting individuals who possess access to company finances, a tactic previously unseen.

From an economic perspective, this is in another league.

— Sebastian TakleDescribing the scale of the targeted fraud attempts.

Sebastian Takle, who leads DNB's financial cybercrime department, described the situation as being in "another league" from an economic perspective. In July alone, DNB documented ten instances of these targeted attacks, with the total sum fraudsters attempted to steal amounting to approximately 10 million Norwegian kroner (around $1 million USD).

This is something new. They are targeting individuals who have access to business accounts.

— Sebastian TakleHighlighting the new tactic of targeting specific individuals with corporate access.

While phishing and vishing (voice phishing) are known methods, the current approach involves a multi-stage attack. Victims reportedly receive an initial phishing message, followed by a phone call from someone impersonating bank or police officials. The scammers then claim to be assisting with security issues, such as increasing BankID security, before gaining access to private online banking and subsequently corporate accounts.

We are now hearing a lot about them helping you increase the security of BankID. Then they first enter the private online bank and jump to the corporate access.

— Sebastian TakleExplaining the multi-stage phishing process.

Takle emphasized that while DNB has seen isolated cases of business account breaches through private customer phishing before, the current attacks appear highly coordinated and systematic. The bank observed two confirmed cases in June, followed by the ten cases in July, all employing similar methods and seemingly originating from the same criminal network. DNB is working to stop these attempts, though the exact amount lost in these incidents has not been disclosed.

In July, we have had ten cases, and the methods are the same in all cases. It appears to be from the same environment.

— Sebastian TakleDescribing the frequency and apparent coordination of the attacks.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by Aftenposten in Norwegian. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

More Stories

From Our Blog