Bank scam victims face money laundering probes

They fell victim to scammers, by responding to phishing e-mails and giving away their bank account passwords. And yet, they were very nearly prosecuted for money laundering.

This is because identity thieves no longer get access to others’ bank accounts simply to empty them of their contents, but also to use the limited time they have to pass along sums of money from one account to another to make the money trail difficult to trace.

A Rhodes resident whose account was hacked in August 2021 was stripped of €14,000, which were sent to three other hacked accounts, two in Greece and one in Spain.

The scammers did not manage to withdraw the money. An Athens woman whose account was credited with €2,000 had all her bank accounts blocked and was investigated. She was finally cleared on September 26, 2022. During that time, she could not receive payments for a serious medical problem.