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  • News article
  • 28 January 2022
  • European Anti-Fraud Office
  • 1 min read

Beware of hoax emails and letters purporting to be from OLAF

man in a hooded jumper looking at notebook screen against a red background
Image by u_lxme1rwy from Pixabay 

A few incidents of fraud and phishing attempts using hoax messages and letters purporting to be from OLAF, the European Anti-Fraud Office have been detected.

Fraudsters and scammers generally use the European Commission or OLAF’s logo and the identity of OLAF staff members, which can look convincing. They often offer to transfer you money on condition that you pay a charge and provide your financial and personal data.

If you, as a private citizen, receive such a request purporting to be from OLAF or one of its staff members, then it is a scam because OLAF NEVER offers or requests money transfers to or from citizens.

Please do not reply or carry out any of the actions contained in the correspondence. You can check if it is genuine by contacting OLAF-FMB-SPEatec [dot] europa [dot] eu (OLAF-FMB-SPE[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu), and consider reporting any fraud and/or phishing attempt to your national authorities competent for crimes and/or cybercrime. 

Other tell-tale signs that a correspondence is a hoax are the use of suspect bank accounts, inaccurate logos, incorrect email address and/or false website address. All genuine OLAF emails end with @ec.europa.eu. The correct address of the OLAF website is https://ec.europa.eu/anti-fraud/index_en. Please check!

Remember: OLAF does not offer or request money transfers to or from citizens!

Details

Publication date
28 January 2022
Author
European Anti-Fraud Office
News type
  • OLAF news article