The fraudulent SMS messages and emails—purporting to be sent on behalf of MVM Next and NAV—either demand payment of an allegedly outstanding electricity bill or inform recipients of a tax refund amounting to HUF 140,000. Since January, such cases have been reported to Internet Hotline. The IH emphasizes that substantive administrative matters may only be handled through the officially recognized websites of the relevant authorities and service providers; public bodies never send payment links via SMS.

In response to the reports, the legal assistance service has notified hosting providers in every case where an accessible website was found to be unlawfully using MVM Next’s name, requesting an investigation of the content. Internet Hotline has also informed complainants of the possibility of filing a criminal report with the police and—where bank card details have already been disclosed—of the urgent need to contact their account-holding financial institution. Regarding fraudulent content misusing the name of the tax authority, IH analysts have referred the matter to other competent bodies.

MVM Next had previously detected the phishing attempt and created an informational webpage outlining the deceptive emails and their telltale signs. NAV has likewise acknowledged the fraudulent approaches and published a notice concerning the fake websites and indicative warning signals.

As experts from CyberShield also advise, urgent and pressuring communications allegedly sent on behalf of non-banking service providers should be treated with heightened caution and a healthy degree of scepticism. Under no circumstances should bank details or passwords be disclosed in response to requests received via email, SMS, or telephone, nor should users install remote-access software from unknown sources.

It is equally important to consult only the official platforms of service providers rather than following links embedded in suspicious messages, and to settle any alleged outstanding payments exclusively through verified channels. In case of doubt, communication should be terminated immediately, and the authenticity of the request should be verified through the official customer service channels of the relevant organization. Users may also block the telephone number from which a suspicious SMS was sent in order to prevent further contact by fraudsters. Phishing websites can be reported via the Internet Hotline’s webpage: https://english.nmhh.hu/internethotline/