Fake Delfi Articles Fuel €66k Investment Scam Targeting Seniors
Two 65-year-old women in Estonia were defrauded of more than €66,000 after scammers, using fraudulent news articles designed to look like the Delfi portal, gained remote access to their phones and coerced them into taking out tens of thousands in personal loans.
- —Two 65-year-old women in Estonia were defrauded of a total of over €66,000 by investment scammers who used fake news articles mimicking the Delfi news portal to lure victims.
- —The victims were directed to a fake investment platform, taurus-acquisition.com, after leaving their contact details on a fraudulent Delfi-style article.
- —Scammers gained remote access to the victims' smartphones, convinced them to open bank accounts with LHV and Revolut, and take out loans totaling over €35,000 from Bondora and Inbank.
- —Victims transferred funds to the fake platform, cryptocurrency wallets, and a French bank account over a period of about a month, only realizing they were defrauded when they attempted to withdraw profits.
- —Police have opened criminal investigations into the incidents and are collecting information on similar fraud schemes.
Recap
This operation demonstrates a calculated fusion of disinformation and social engineering. By cloning a trusted news source, the perpetrators bypassed initial skepticism to deploy a multi-stage attack. The strategy wasn't just to steal existing savings but to actively create new debt for the victims through guided loan applications, maximizing the financial damage. The use of remote access software, multiple financial institutions, and cryptocurrency points to a well-organized criminal group with a clear playbook for extracting funds and obscuring their trail.