What can be reported?

In the Phishing content category, you can report content available on the internet that is intended to deliberately mislead and defraud persons of their personal (name, address, birth data, username, password) or financial (bank account number, bank card identification data, PIN) data. Reports of instances of online financial fraud are typically received in this category.

Examples

• Fake online stores, offers
• Scamming sellers on online marketplaces
• Identity theft on social media
• Fake banking sites
• Fake banking emails sent for phishing
• Misuse of the names of non-bank service providers by e-mail
• “Nigerian prince” scams
• Fake investment opportunities
• Sites misusing the names of police, other public authorities, non-governmental organisations

What happens to the report?

1. Examining the reported content: We will investigate the content at the URL or link indicated in the report, if it is still available.
2. Contacting the service provider, the social media platform: If the content is available, we will contact the content and/or hosting service provider and the social media platform concerned, and ask for the content in question to be investigated and, if necessary, removed.
3. Contacting the reporting person: In all cases where the report is not anonymous, i.e. the reporting person has provided their email contact details, we will inform the reporting person of the action taken. If necessary, we will ask for further information or clarification.

Before filing a report, please consider the following

• Do you have a specific URL or link to the offending content that would allow us to investigate your report?
• Do you have any other evidence, such as a screenshot?

In what situations are we unable to help?

• Investigating consumer protection issues and complaints.
• If the matter has already been reported to the police and there is an ongoing investigation, we can only proceed once the reporting person has notified the investigation authority, which confirms that the Internet Hotline can conduct the procedure as detailed above. This is necessary because the removal of the content may compromise the success of the investigation.

Relevant legal standards

Act C of 2012 on the Criminal Code

• Section 219 Misuse of Personal Data
• Section 375 Information System Fraud
• Section 422(1)(d)–(e) - Illicit Access to Data