They then ask the victims to provide personal information and make payments while posing as Europol officers. The scammers tell their victims that they are involved in serious crimes or are the victims of a crime like identity theft. Scammers call individuals under the pretense of representing Europol.

The first source is a real Europol information page, warning of the calls in English and pointing out that Europol NEVER calls people. And indeed, there were already indications of this call scam: Fake call is a scam attemptĪfter I got the first call, I wondered what it was and looked it up on the internet. If I get a third call, I'll just name a few made-up dates and see what the goal of the calls is.

My number was apparently on the list several times, because less than two days later the same call came again.

The funny fake Europol official then hung up – clear sign: fake call.