STOCKHOLM, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- The number on frauds on bank ID has doubled in Sweden since the beginning of the year and students in search of an apartment are a special target group, the Swedish Television SVT reported on Monday.
According to the police, in July and August more people are tricked because students have to move and search for an apartment.
"There is a continuous shortage of apartments especially in big cities. When schools start, the students will most likely do anything to get an apartment. The impostors take advantage of this," police inspector Jan Olsson told SVT.
The impostors have acquired bank ID's and access to bank accounts for example through Facebook groups where people search and rent apartments. In many cases, the impostor pretends that they want to do a credit information check-up and asks the person to log in to their mobile bank to approve the check-up.
"This is guaranteed to be a scam. One should never log in to their mobile bank by the request of someone else," Olsson said.
According to the police, the number of frauds has double from February till July.
"I cannot say exact numbers, but in early February we knew of a few hundred cases. In July, this figure has doubled. The true number is probably even bigger since only a few percent of the victims report the crime."
