Our colleagues from RTL spoke to Cliff Konsbruck, director of the Post telecommunication services, about the recent increase in phishing attempts in Luxembourg.

The frequency of reported phishing attempts appears to have been on the rise in recent weeks. In many cases, people receive messages to subscribe to games from platforms such as Thumbr, Zimiq, or Gamsai. These phone numbers start with 67 and the messages may end up costing people money even if they do not respond.

Post's Cliff Konsbruck elaborated: "These are service-based scams. They often lure people into subscriptions with updates on weather, petrol prices, parking tickets, or horoscopes. People usually have to sign up for such a service and then end up getting costly messages."

Konsbruck further stressed that people may sign up for such services unknowingly by typing in their phone numbers online: "We see that there is often a lack of transparency. If clients think they have been signed up for such a service without their knowledge, they should contact their providers immediately. They should then be able to determine whether someone has willingly signed up to a messaging service."

Costs for such messages appear on phone bills marked as "additionally taxed messages". If a client has not signed up for such a service, then costs will be considered fraudulent and reimbursed: "If people get messages that they never signed up for, they are advised to text back 'Stop'. This should then force the sender to remove a person from the messaging list."

Blocking a number does not work, explained Konsbruck. Even if a person no longer sees the messages, they are still sent and billed by the operators. People are however able to ask their providers to completely block message subscriptions for them.