Facebook Summer House Scam Victims: Police Struggle to Solve Cases | Kontant

When planning a vacation, the allure of online offers can be tempting, but one must be cautious to avoid falling prey to scams.

In a Facebook group dedicated to vacation rentals, Sussi Junge Lomholt stumbled upon a post advertising a cottage in Søndervig. The post was made by a woman named “Dorthe.”

The Facebook profile “Dorthe” was created in 2009, has over 600 friends, and several posts. This led Sussi Junge Lomholt to believe it was a credible profile.

She contacted “Dorthe” to rent the cottage, and after a lengthy Messenger conversation, Sussi Junge Lomholt decided to proceed with the rental.

After transferring 11,700 kroner via an instant transfer to “Dorthe,” Sussi Junge Lomholt believed she had secured the rental without competition.

However, once the money was transferred, Sussi Junge Lomholt never heard from “Dorthe” again, who was supposed to send a lease agreement.

In reality, “Dorthe” did not own a cottage at all. The Facebook profile had been hacked, and the rental advertisement was a scam. When Sussi Junge Lomholt realized this, she panicked.

– I thought, ‘damn, my 11,700 kroner is gone.’

Jens Myrup Pedersen, a professor of cybersecurity at Aalborg University, believes that one should not rely on the police to recover funds lost to fake Facebook profiles.

– These cases are extremely resource-intensive to investigate, says Jens Myrup Pedersen.

– It’s a societal problem that it’s so challenging to get to the bottom of these cases. It essentially makes it risk-free crime for the perpetrators.

How do scammers gain access to such Facebook profiles?

– They can do this, for example, by conducting phishing attacks, says Jens Myrup Pedersen.

A phishing attack could involve an email or message enticing people to click on a link, such as a fake Facebook login page.

– This way, they get people to disclose their usernames and passwords, explains Jens Myrup Pedersen.

Once scammers have access to the profile, they can lock out the genuine user by changing the password.

Upon realizing she had been deceived by fake profiles and lost her money, Sussi Junge Lomholt posted a public warning on her own Facebook profile.

– This needs to stop. And it won’t if we all stay silent, says Sussi Junge Lomholt.

– I also don’t think it’s nice to tell people that I’ve been scammed. But that’s the reality, and it’s extensive fraud they’re committing. It affects many people and involves a lot of money.

Sussi Junge Lomholt also reported the incident to the police.

However, according to Torben Svarrer, the chief police inspector at the National Unit for Special Crime (NSK), it’s often challenging to trace the culprits when such economic crimes are reported.

– Many times, cases are closed because we don’t believe we can document the criminal offense, says chief police inspector Torben Svarrer.

“Cash” spoke with several vacationers who were defrauded by the same Facebook profiles as Sussi Junge Lomholt and had also reported their cases to the police.

Shortly after, one of them received a message from the police stating that the investigation had been terminated because “the case cannot be expected to be solved with an investigation effort reasonable in relation to the nature and severity of the case.”

She lodged a complaint with the police about the decision and later received a letter disclosing the name and address of the suspect in her case, along with instructions to pursue a civil lawsuit against them.

“Cash” approached the police’s suspect and confirmed that the individual had no involvement in the vacation rental scam but was being exploited by the masterminds. The suspect claimed they had never been contacted by the police.

– We have criteria regarding how far we can go in securing evidence that a criminal offense has occurred, says chief police inspector Torben Svarrer.

– The investigation required to substantiate this would correspond to the loss in the case, etc. In terms of the time it would take? That’s the resource consideration we factor in.