Illustration photo – Minister for Regional Development Ivan Bartoš (Pirates).
Prague – Deputy Prime Minister for Digitization Ivan Bartoš (Pirates) warned against fraudsters who send SMS messages referring to a fake Citizen's Portal, through which they want to trick people into accessing their bank account. The only correct address of the portal is https://obcan.portal.gov.cz, reminded Bartoš on Twitter.
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Fraudulent SMS messages say that the addressee has an unclaimed tax refund or that he has a problem with his tax return. But it is an attempt to steal personal data, a so-called phishing attack. The messages are often sent from a foreign number, in the intercepted cases numbers with the Polish area code +48 were discovered. But there are also cases when messages were sent from domestic numbers as well, Anna Urbanová from Bartoš's cabinet stated in a press release.
She added that the link to the Citizen's Portal in the fraudulent message also contains dashes and a domain, unlike the real address net, for example portal.gov-cz.net, but domains can vary.
“Fake websites copy the graphic form of the real portal and offer the addressee a login through a bank identity. The user is then redirected to a fake bank page, where the fraudster can steal the data for accessing internet banking when filling out the form,” Urbanová added.
If people click on a fake page and suspect that their data may have been stolen, according to Urbanová, they should immediately change their password and contact their bank.
A citizen's portal that functions as a signpost for on- online services of the state and, for example, to create an online petition or apply for a voter's card, is managed by the Ministry of the Interior. In April, however, it will be taken over by the new Digital Information Agency (DIA) together with the Administration of Basic Registers and Czech Points.
Other domestic authorities have also encountered fraudulent e-mails and SMS messages. They were recorded, for example, by the Czech Post Office, the Customs Administration, the General Health Insurance Company, the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs or private transport companies.
