PKN Orlen warns against a wave of frauds. Criminals pretend to be state-owned companies

Fraud on the Internet has always been present, but for several months it has been swarming with successive campaigns of criminals. The methods of scammers are becoming more and more sophisticated, but the less attentive or simply distracted Internet users remain the target.

We have recently written about many of these scams in Next.Gazeta.pl. Criminals usually use the image of private or state-owned companies, government institutions and famous people. Often encountered in recent weeks were, among others scams “on Orlen”, “on Daniel Obajtek” or “on Andrzej Duda”. Cybercriminals often impersonated (and still impersonate) banks and state-owned companies, such as PGNiG.

Orlen warns against attacks by fraudsters

Now, PKN Orlen, whose image has recently been used extremely often in campaigns by criminals, has decided to warn against the next wave of fraud. In a video published on Twitter and on its website, Orlen points out that advertisements encouraging investing in state-owned companies (mainly through the purchase of shares) on the Internet are fraudulent.

Most often, such advertisements (in the form of video spots or graphics) appear on social media, in particular on Facebook and YouTube. Fraudsters “guarantee” allegedly very high and certain profits and encourage people to donate funds to buy shares through crafted, fake websites.

Orlen emphasizes that it never calls its clients and does not persuade them to invest in its shares. He adds that investing in the concern’s shares on the stock exchange is possible only through licensed brokerage houses (and not random websites). The company emphasizes that “these advertisements use unlawfully the name, trademarks and images of representatives of the company and state institutions”.

We expressly emphasize that individual investors may only invest in PKN ORLEN shares through licensed brokerage houses and banks conducting brokerage activities, the full list of which can be found on the website of the Polish Financial Supervision Authority.

– explains the company in a press release.

How not to be fooled by phishing?

Scams “on Orlen”, “on PGNiG” and many other similar scams are of course a classic example of phishing. Fraudsters promise golden mountains and hope that less careful Internet users will get tricked and transfer money to them themselves or provide them with sensitive data that will allow them to clean a bank card or account.

In such attacks, the key is to build trust in a potential victim, which is why cybercriminals use the image of a famous person or the logo of a company that is supposed to inspire trust. They also hope that the Internet user will not carefully check the details of the advertisement and will act under the influence of emotions.

In order to protect yourself from such attacks, you first need to use common sense and think three times if you are dealing with a fraud. For example, a brokerage house or a reputable financial institution or company it will never speak of “some return” on your investment on the stock exchange.

It is also worth paying attention to the link leading to the website (is the company name correct and what is the domain) and whether the advertisement is written in the correct language. Many scams are full of errors, and sentences look like pasted straight from an online translator.