Online scams are growing and the police are taking action. In the first six months of 2025, the Oristano Flying Squad reported 29 people for crimes related to scams, impersonation and computer fraud. A number that only captures a part of the phenomenon, which continues to evolve and strike in increasingly ingenious and difficult to detect ways.
Among the cases that emerged during the investigations, the so-called “PagoPa false communication scam” stands out, where the victim receives a fake fine notification via email or SMS for an alleged violation of the highway code. By following the link indicated in the message, they are induced to enter personal and banking data in a fraudulent form: by doing so, the scammers manage to steal the funds from the current account.
Another increasingly widespread scam is that of fraudulent online sales advertisements , especially for engines and spare parts for cars. Criminals pretend to be reliable dealers, lure victims with advantageous offers and, once they have received payment (usually on rechargeable cards), disappear into thin air. In some cases, they also manage to obtain copies of buyers' identity documents, which are then used for further fraud.
The most sophisticated techniques, however, are hidden behind the computer fraud known as “man in the middle”. Here, scammers manage to intercept communications between customers and suppliers, manipulating emails during payment to change the recipient’s IBAN: the result is that the money ends up in the scammers’ accounts instead of the legitimate supplier’s account.
But, thanks to a combination of bank checks and IT tools, the agents seized over 35,000 euros and, on numerous occasions, it was possible to recover the sums stolen from the victims.
"Prevention remains the first line of defense," explain the investigators, who invite citizens to pay attention to some typical signs of scams: overly tempting offers, suspicious urgency in concluding the deal, messages with grammatical errors or coming from ambiguous addresses.
Helpful tips include: avoid sending documents to strangers, use secure payment methods (such as prepaid cards), and always verify the identity of the person you are talking to.
If you have any concerns about a suspicious email, you can send it to malware@cert-agid.gov.it for immediate verification.
(Unioneonline/Fr.Me.)