Bloomberg: How Sweden’s push to go cashless has left consumers and the country vulnerable to online fraud; value of fraudulent transactions has doubled since 2021 — Sweden has led the way in Europe in going cashless, but fast and easy digital commerce have left consumers and the state vulnerable to fraud.
A big problem is that the elderly are those getting scammed the most. The elderly have been punished for bank usage every step on the way by the banks that wants nothing more then to cut costs. The banks removed all types of services the elderly population where using. Cash bill payments, cash investment, cash withdrawal/deposit and general handling of cash.
They also made their ID verification extremely unsecure with their property Bank ID solution and did nothing for a decade to make any effort to make it remotely safe to use (until this May of 2024 where you need to scan a QR code next to you with a pin).
All the scammers needed to do was call the elderly say it they where from the bank and ask them to input their pin on the phone to transfer everything they ever had out of their account.
Many of the elderly are tech-illiterate and don’t understand and some even have problems with a normal debit card.
The banks always pointed the blame towards those they removed the services from. Made unsecure solutions that they did not understand all for the sake of vast profits.
As some other user said mugging might be down because it was easier for the criminals to not only steal some few cash from a mugging but everything you ever saved for an entire life with tiny scams.