The message that came to my cell phone was sly. From: NBG, that is, it should have been from the National Bank.

The text was in English “Please update the new version” and had a strange reference to a bank. To avoid possible infection of my mobile phone, I typed the link on my computer and ended up on a screen that looked exactly like the National Bank page, but with two differences.

The first address was: https://helendoron.co.il/pronto/NBGblock/NBGblock/. National Bank with an Israeli address? Another one and this one…

The second difference was that all the links that the team has on its page, i.e. “Frequently Asked Questions” did not answer. All I could do was enter my account codes. In other words, it was a standard e-scam to extract codes, since I am not a party leader or an editor of a financial report to plant software on my mobile phone for someone.

First question: how did they find the mobile number? Probably sending bulk messages to random numbers and the like. Again, mobile phone listings may have been leaked by the government or private agencies. Every public service and every private shop (even the smallest one) asks for our mobile phone number “for better service”. How secure are their databases? We do not know. This is a topic that is not discussed.

The case would not be worth mentioning – as I was told, there are thousands of fraud attempts and only the success of cybercriminals see the light when they manage to withdraw significant amounts – but what is impressive in this case is the complete indifference (?), absence (?), bureaucracy (? ) of the Greek police.

Therefore, as a citizen and taxpayer of this state, I tried to report the attempt to the competent authorities. The Ministry of Civil Protection has created the website “Department for Combating Electronic Crimes” and the Internet portal “Electronic Service of Citizens, Enterprises and Institutions” https://cyberalert.gr/. The words “ABOUT CYBERALERT” are many and bold: “Given the evolution of cybercrime and its impact on all aspects of society, it becomes clear that there is an urgent need to effectively inform the public (children, parents, the business world, Internet users) in real time on issues relevant to the cybercrime prosecutor’s office, in particular safe browsing of the Internet and the risks associated with it” (underlined on the website).

The first surprise was that the website of the Cybercrime Prosecutor’s Office has a lot of stuff, such as “attempted deception and cases of spreading false news over the Internet about coronavirus (COVID-19)”, but it does not (even to the eyes of the world) have a button for submission of applications and complaints by citizens. Not to mobilize the agency and go after cybercriminals, but at least to get real-time information about the issues that should have worried him.

The second surprise was that even the specified e-mail address [email protected] inactive. Someone has to type it into their email program to send a message. It takes a lot of work to make the sun turn, and it takes mindless typing to make “staff and digital state” work.

But there is a five-digit telephone number 11188, similar to those for which various departments receive complaints, for example. at SDOE 1517, Smiling Child 1056, etc. Um, no! The third surprise is the hierarchy in the phone menu: “…press 1 for information requests.” Luckily, there is “press 2” to speak to an (admittedly very pleasant) police officer who informed me that due to these online scam attempts, the agency has done its duty: issued a press release with a warning!

And how can you file a complaint? “You should go to the local police station with printouts of the relevant (electronic) documents and file a complaint against strangers…”. In other words, for an obvious attempt at electronic fraud, in addition to the relevant department, an outside agency on duty plus a prosecutor must be involved, who will accept the complaint and, after a lot of paperwork, proceed to further actions. We can understand in which cyberspaces the fight against electronic crime is being carried out and how alert the ELAS services are. Above, we did not mention the efforts and time of citizens, they are already insignificant over time for the state for which we pay.

“But I don’t want to file a lawsuit that still won’t go anywhere,” I replied. “I just want to send you addresses and screenshots for information.” The answer was disarming: “This is the only way, through lawsuits, to inform the Greek state.” I don’t remember him adding “unfortunately”…