The central government campaign ‘Laat je niet interneppen’ focuses on recognising and preventing online crime. A commonly used crime technique is misleading people online. By exploiting personal situations and posing as someone else, criminals manage to deceive their targets.
Interest in learning
Some 2.2 million Dutch people were affected by online crime last year, according to Statistics Netherlands (CBS). Alongside the financial damage they suffered as a result, they also often experience emotional damage. They feel less safe and have less trust in others, for example.
Exploiting personal situations
How does it work? Criminals often exploit a personal situation online to extract personal information. They pretend to be someone else. Someone who can be trusted, such as a friend or a shop assistant with a great offer. Criminals contact their targets by email, SMS or WhatsApp and exploit human character traits such as curiosity, trust, greed, fear and lack of knowledge to make their move.
Government campaign
The Ministry of Justice and Security and the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations’ multi-year campaign calls on people to thoroughly check the sender of online messages and, when in doubt, to click or swipe away. At laatjenietinterneppen.nl, information is available on how to recognise this type of online fraud and how to counter it.
Source: Goverment of the Netherlands
