Online fraud and liability

Every year, countless Dutch people become victims of online fraud. In many cases, the victim has also lost the money irrevocably. According to Statistics Netherlands (CBS), this is the case for more than 90% of victims, while more than 3% of Dutch people aged 12 or over say they have been a victim of online fraud. Purchase fraud via second-hand sales sites is particularly common, but other forms of online fraud are not rare either. This page describes the situation in the Netherlands.

Different forms of online fraud

Fraudsters often operate very cunningly and keep finding new ways to defraud victims. Even so, there are a number of popular forms of online fraud, such as WhatsApp fraud and Marktplaats scams.

Online dating and fraud

Many fraudsters look for victims via dating sites or social media. They often start by building pleasant contact with the victim, and it soon turns out that they have a lot in common. After some time, the call for financial help eventually comes. It often starts with the promise to come and visit the victim, but then something always seems to get in the way. For example, a problem with travel documents or an illness in the family. By this point, it has actually become a matter of course that the victim offers more financial help. The romantic feelings prevent alarm bells from ringing, and as a result the damage sometimes runs into tens or even hundreds of thousands of euros. Even so, there are a number of things that such fraudsters have in common:

• The dating partner is often foreign. The American nationality in particular is often used, but usually the person is in Africa or the Middle East because of their job.
• Male dating partners are often entrepreneurs or soldiers.
• The dating partner promises to come and visit the victim, but keeps running into problems.
• The dating partner has problems getting access to his or her money and wants to borrow money.

Microsoft scams

In this form of fraud, the victim is called by someone posing as a Microsoft employee. Many people use Microsoft's Windows operating system, so this is an easy way for criminals to win trust. The fraudster often says that the computer is infected and that this creates a security risk. The fraudster then takes over the computer via TeamViewer and all kinds of error messages are shown. Eventually, the fraudster is willing to clean up the computer, but a payment must be made first. The victim does this, but it does not seem to work, so the fraudster asks them to try again. In practice, all the payments are simply carried out.

Customer service scams

In this form of fraud, victims call a fake customer service themselves. The fraudsters place advertisements on Google, for example, and the victim believes they have really reached the customer service of a reliable company. As a result, they trust the honesty of the person they are speaking to. A payment is often requested in the end, for example to extend the services so that the problem does not happen again.

Marktplaats scams

In this case, people think they are in contact with a trader, but it is actually a fraudster. The fraudster sends a payment request and the victim pays, but never receives the products. We call this a Marktplaats scam, but in practice it also happens on countless other sales platforms. This is also the case for Facebook groups. You need to be especially careful with sought-after items such as tickets for concerts or sports matches.

A variant of this is the Tikkie scam, in which the victim is in contact with a buyer or seller who sends a Tikkie. The victim thinks they are making a payment, but the payment page is actually a copy of the Tikkie site.

If you have doubts about the reliability of the seller, it is advisable to contact the website owner (for example Marktplaats or Etsy). Also check the seller's details and use the Stop Heling app to check whether a product has been registered as stolen.

WhatsApp fraud

The fraudsters pose as someone you know and ask for money. They often have very good excuses and base themselves on information that can also be found via social media. For example, they know that the victim's son is travelling to Thailand and they ask for money in his name. This form of fraud is also sometimes called help request fraud or friend-in-need fraud. In the newest forms of fraud, the fraudsters even use voice recordings. Typical features of WhatsApp fraud include:

• It is a so-called acquaintance who sends messages from an unknown number; often they have just got a new number.
• The name and the profile photo are correct. Sometimes other information that can be found via social media is also used.
• The victim is asked to advance some money, and there is often a great deal of urgency.
• The person you are talking to cannot or will not communicate in any other way.
• When calling, you sometimes hear the voice of the victim saying 'hello' a few times, for example, after which the call ends. These are sound clips that have been collected from earlier phone calls. Sometimes voice recordings found via social media are also used.

Because the money is transferred voluntarily, the bank can almost never be held liable. Moreover, it is very difficult to stop the payment. The victim has often really lost the money.

Fraud via fake messages and emails

Fraudsters often exploit current situations to obtain victims' bank details. They often pose as an official body, such as the Dutch central government (Rijksoverheid). For example, the Fraud Helpdesk (Fraudehelpdesk) recently warned about text messages about an extra healthcare allowance (zorgtoeslag). The fraudsters often want to collect personal data in this way in order to misuse it later for fraudulent practices.

A striking finding is that fraudsters are increasingly using malicious QR codes in their emails, with the aim of luring the victim to a website to steal their bank details. Practice shows that victims trust QR codes more than links.

From online fraud to usable funds

After obtaining funds, the fraudster will convert the money into usable financial resources. There are various ways in which a fraudster can do this.

Cryptocurrencies remain popular with fraudsters. They are largely anonymous, and there are specialised services that are used to make the money flows untraceable. The crypto coins can then easily be converted back into other currencies.

Another way is to have the victim order valuable items. This is done, for example, in Tikkie scams and Microsoft scams: the payments made are used for such items. The goods are then sent by the webshop to an address. Empty buildings or buildings that are for sale are often used for this. In this way, criminals obtain jewellery, designer clothing, phones and watches, among other things, which they then sell on the black market. Gift cards are also used. For this, the fraudster often uses an email address that seems reliable to the webshop. For example, the gift card for Ophélie de Ligt is sent to the email address opdeligt1@hotmail.com. With this method, it is sometimes still possible to intervene. It is important, though, that the victim takes action quickly enough.

Liability and compensation for online fraud

The party committing the fraud is liable for their malicious dealings and even risks heavy penalties. For this, however, their identity must be traceable. That is often where things go wrong in practice. That is why victims often look at whether another party, such as the bank or a platform like Marktplaats, can be held liable. This is not at all easy either. A bank, for example, is not liable for WhatsApp fraud because the victim made a mistake themselves and the bank cannot be blamed for anything.

Platforms like Marktplaats are also very difficult to hold liable, as are companies whose brand name is misused. This is because the platforms have not actually done anything wrong, which means there will rarely be online liability. Only in exceptional cases is this different, for example if it can be shown that insufficient action was taken on earlier reports about fraudulent sellers.

Precisely because there are so few ways of recovering the loss, taking out cyber insurance is advisable. Certain cases of online fraud are covered by cyber insurance. This involves not only compensation for the loss of money, but often also legal and technical support.