Prevention of fraud 

Fraud schemes aimed at swindling money out of people and businesses through scam calls, phishing messages, fake websites, and fraudulent advertising continue to spread widely both in Estonia and around the world. In 2025, 3 685 people in Estonia fell victim to fraud, losing a total of nearly 31 million euros. The largest share of the losses came from scam calls, through which victims lost close to 11.5 million euros to fraudsters. This was followed by investment fraud (6.3 million), fraud targeting businesses (2.7 million) and sales fraud (1.7 million).

Organizing anti-fraud cooperation among our members is one of the Banking Association's priorities. We also cooperate with the Police and Border Guard Board (PPA), the Information System Authority (RIA), telecom companies, postal companies, and other parties, and since 2020 we have carried out an extensive nationwide advertising campaign every year to raise public awareness.

Although, according to surveys, more than 90% of the Estonian population is aware of the fraud schemes in circulation, and the schemes are, time and again, the same ones, there continue to be people who fall victim as a result of scammers' skillful manipulation. The largest sums are usually lost in investment fraud and business email compromise (CEO fraud) cases. Under the influence of criminals, people make the payments to the scammers' accounts themselves. Also still popular are scams in which someone is called under some pretext by a person claiming to be from the police, a bank, or another institution. The most common claims scammers use are: "A suspicious transaction is taking place on your account, and confirmation from the customer is needed to stop it," and "Your account has been infected with malware, and you need to download a program to protect your device." That very same "protective" program, or the customer's confirmation in their authentication tool, is what gives criminals access to the person's accounts, after which they carry out transactions as they see fit.

As a rule, the organizers of these frauds are based abroad. This makes investigating these crimes and bringing the perpetrators to justice difficult, and recovering the lost money is practically impossible. The swindled money moves quickly between different banks and payment service providers using front persons (money mules), and is ultimately withdrawn as cash abroad or converted into cryptocurrency. Money has been recovered as an exception only in cases where the person immediately realized they had fallen victim to fraud and contacted their home bank to stop the payment. The vast majority of payments are made from account to account within a matter of seconds, so even a quick reaction may unfortunately not be enough to recall the payment.

Read about common fraud schemes and warning signs on the Banking Association's fraud prevention campaign website: https://pettuseinfo.ee/