Fraud, Telenor | He warns of a new type of fraud

“Is it tempting to charge several thousand kroner every day – for just one hour’s effort?”

In recent days, many Norwegian iPhone users have received this type of inquiry via iMessage.

– This is called employment fraud. Here you are promised gold and green forests, but instead you can end up stealing large sums of money and personal information, explains Thorbjørn Busch, senior security advisor at Telenor in a press release.

Only now is the scam, well known in other parts of the world, beginning to appear in Norway on a large scale.

Vague description

The scam messages that have emerged in recent days appear to be from people associated with recruitment companies, such as Danish Hayes. This is an established international company – admittedly it does not have an office in Norway.

Jobs displayed in messages have a vague description, such as “Helping app developers improve their apps” or something similar.

Hayes confirms that there is talk of fraud and misuse of their name, and that this is also happening outside the borders of Norway. Sweden in particular has been hit hard in recent weeks by the same type of fraud now emerging in Norway.

Tips for avoiding recruitment fraud

Do you offer high pay for very little effort? This is a red flag – why would strangers have any interest in “donating” money to you? Even if the message claims to come from a recruitment company, the sender usually has an unrelated email address, or a foreign phone number.
Real recruiters will always contact you from an official email address or local phone number.
Is the job description vague? Are you offering the job without an interview? Is the same offer being made to many people at the same time? There are many things that can give you a wrong feeling – hence you should follow that one thing, don’t be fooled by advanced and well-designed websites or good language.
Scammers often have a great deal of technical expertise and can spend money on developing reliable and effective websites – and they also use artificial intelligence to a greater extent. Check the web address, it often ends in something other than .no or .com.
Never provide or enter banking details or other private information on a website they send you to. Here criminals can read everything.
Finally: If you are asked to pay to be allowed to work, you will almost certainly be scammed. Stay away!

Not personal

– The messages are not personal, but go out to several recipients who have mobile phone numbers starting with the same number. Here recipients are encouraged to call a Norwegian phone number on WhatsApp, Bosch says.

Switching platforms to WhatsApp allows the scam to continue even if the sender is blocked on iMessage.

This is how the scam works. To learn more about the scammers’ method and target, Telenor’s security department contacted the senders of the specific mobile phone number, under the fictitious name “Robert”.

In a conversation with the “recruitment official” via the “WhatsApp” application, and after some initial questions, it became clear that “Robert” is qualified for the job and can begin training immediately. After a long conversation via WhatsApp, Robert was directed to what appeared to be an advanced training platform. He was then given tasks that included testing applications on behalf of big (and misspelled) international brand names. A short time later, Robert made several hundred dollars.

You must create a crypto wallet

To get the paid funds, you are required to create a crypto wallet. Scammers have previously shown that payouts can be significantly increased by “unlocking” bonuses. To achieve this, one must deposit larger amounts into the scammers’ crypto account.

– It is possible that a small amount will be paid to you beforehand as “proof” of the legitimacy of the scheme. But anything you transfer after that is money you’ll never see again. Many Norwegians may know that private finances are under greater pressure now that interest rates are rising. So the offer of easy money can seem more tempting than others, something scammers know how to exploit, Bush concludes.