Incident

Home page

Incident

Azerbaijan MIA: AZN 22.4 million stolen from bank cards last year through foreign cyber interference

05 February 2025 15:45 (UTC +04:00)

In 2024, over AZN 22 million (22,442,838) were stolen from citizens through 16,804 cases of foreign cyber interference, the Press Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Azerbaijan told APA.

According to the information provided, last year, 2,043,896 AZN were stolen from individual citizens through various cyber methods in 1,027 cases through fake links, 1,196,786 AZN in 411 cases by calling based on advertisements on shopping pages and obtaining personal information, 598,048 AZN in 290 cases by presenting oneself as a bank employee and obtaining personal information, 311,728 AZN in 185 cases through cyber interference with mobile phones, 92,630 AZN in 178 cases under the guise of helping to withdraw money from ATMs, and 101,398 AZN in 307 cases from stolen and lost cards.

By deceiving citizens on Internet resources, promising to make a profit in lottery, gambling, and other games, 2,450,403 AZN were transferred to different foreign accounts in 471 cases, 292,344 AZN in 626 cases related to the sale of various items on shopping sites, 116,219 AZN in 292 cases related to the sale of phones, 121,640 AZN in 100 cases related to the sale of cars, 470,734 AZN in 336 cases related to the promise of employment, 139,600 AZN in 501 cases related to the promise of loans, 82,370 AZN in 343 cases related to the rental of houses, cars, and other services, and more than 10,000 cases related to other methods.

Analysis and investigations conducted on each case show that the cyber fraud crimes detected are the result of unknown individuals abroad obtaining personal information related to the citizens' bank cards. Bank card owners, believing the demands, offers, and promises of unknown individuals from fake foreign numbers, profiles, and pages, provided their personal information without checking or investigating the intentions of the unknown person they were talking or corresponding with, and clicked on suspicious links.

Taking this into account, the Ministry of Internal Affairs has once again called on citizens: "Be cautious when making online payments related to personal information and bank cards—both deposits and withdrawals, treat all suspicious offers with caution, do not respond to unknown calls or messages, and do not click on suspicious links."