How social engineering fraud works and how to protect ourselves from it (phishing, vishing, smishing, spoofing, etc.)
Automatically translated summary. The full text is available in Romanian.
A note produced under the National Consumer Information Campaign, implemented by the Independent Think Tank “Expert-Grup”, explains how financial fraud based on telecommunications and social engineering works in Moldova. It outlines the main risks and what authorities, businesses and citizens can do to reduce the likelihood of becoming victims.
The note distinguishes fraud from unfair commercial practices. A trader intends to sell a product or service, so the matter falls under consumer protection authorities; a fraudster intends from the start to seize a victim's assets, which is a matter for law enforcement.
Citing ENISA and Europol's 2026 report, it says that as strict customer authentication spreads, criminals rely more on psychological manipulation, creating urgency, panic or a sense of authority. It describes vishing, CLI spoofing, smishing and Telephone Oriented Attack Delivery (callback phishing). According to the European Banking Authority, transfers cause the largest losses, but card payments and e-wallets show higher fraud rates relative to transaction value.
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