This type of fraud is perpetrated through text messages, email, content on social media, online advertisements or other similar channels and is commonly based on statements about how you can make easy money be taking advantage of “the deal of the century” to invest in cryptocurrency, shares or something else.

This type of fraud is based on texts or emails made to look like they come from a bank or transport company and contain a link you’re asked to open. The link leads to a site that invites you to log in to a banking app or online banking, or requests your payment card information.

Cybercriminals are well prepared and send creditable messages on behalf of managers and CEOs. The aim is to trick staff into transferring funds to accounts that the criminals control.

This type of fraud is based on criminals initiating fake romantic relationships online in order to defraud their victims of funds.

An increasingly common type of criminal activity is tied to the use of payment cards in ecommerce. It’s important that card holders take precautions to maximise their security in online transactions and read carefully all requests to authenticate payments.

Cybercriminals hack social media accounts such as on Facebook, Messenger or Instagram. Private accounts are taken over and used to send messages requesting payment card information, security credentials, etc. that can be used to defraud victims.

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We recommend anti-virus security to everyone, yet no anti-virus solutions provides 100% protection.

Details and comparisons of top anti-virus software can be found at AV-Comparatives.

One type of malware that has wreaked havoc around the world is so-called third generation man-in-the-browser Trojan. This type of malware retrieves access information of online banking users in order to misuse it.

The Icelandic Financial Services Association has warned against this type of malware. We want to reiterate how important it is that users’ computers have updated virus protection and that operating systems and other programmes are always updated.

Instructions on how to compose answers to security questions

Answering so-called security questions is one way of accessing locked websites such as online banking. The correct answer can’t be something that’s easy to find online. The answers should be based on experience or be subjective. Here’s some good advice on how to compose answers for online banking and other password-protected services.

What’s the problem?

Common questions include your favourite actor or most beautiful flower rather than the name of first school. But even that’s not enough. People frequently express their opinion about their favourite poet or the actor they find most annoying online or on other public forums and this is problematic when it comes to security questions. As a result, security questions aren’t a service provider’s first choice - they’re rarely used unless when all other avenues have been explored.

Original answers are best

The solution is to compose answers that are unrelated to the question. Let’s take the classic question - Where did you get your first kiss? - as an example. A good answer would be something along the lines of “Wow, I can fly!”. Nobody can guess or google that answer as it’s completely unconnected to the question. Note that for the user, the answer is still true and accurate in a way, as they may well have felt like the first kiss made them fly. Such associations help us remember the “right” answer.

If the service provider does not offer experience-based questions or only a few questions, compose an unconnected answer. You can use the same answer for all the questions, as long as it’s impossible to guess.

The trend of using quotes or phrases from movies is inadvisable. Even in Iceland, it’s likely that users would choose known phrases like “thungur hnífur”, “Dúfnahólar 10”, “Fru Stella jeg tharf ekki sjuss”, etc.

Service providers often use security questions in phone communications with users. It doesn’t matter if you use special characters like exclamation or question marks. The trick is to select a completely unconnected answer, part of sentence or short sentence that you can easily remember and, of course, if appropriate, use special Icelandic characters.