In a video posted on Facebook on Tuesday, Orban said his cabinet was busy preparing for tomorrow’s meeting which will cover economic issues such as the mandatory cap on markups, the Demjan Sandor scheme for scaling up local SMEs as well as "a very harmful phenomenon".

Orban warned of a recent "noticeable rise" in banking scams and hacking cases, "particularly Ukrainian-linked cyber fraud".

"One wrong click and there go the family’s savings," the prime minister said, noting that scammers defraud Hungarian families of 8 billion forints (EUR 19.8m) each year.

He said the authorities had recently shut down a 19-member network linked to Ukrainian organised crime, adding he believed that investigators will have to step up such operations.

The cabinet on Wednesday will decide on new ways to combat banking scams linked to Ukrainian crime rings, Orban said.

Orban: Govt allocated additional funds to combat online fraud

The government has given additional financial resources to the police so that more people can deal with online fraud, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said in a weekly interview with public radio.

Orban said that these scams can affect anyone who has a bank card or digitally managed savings, and all it takes is one wrong move, one click, and suddenly the scammers have taken the money.

He said that Hungarians act in good faith, making them easy prey for scammers, so we need to be prepared for these online scams, and the authorities need to mobilize much more energy to educate people and help protect them.

The prime minister said HUF 8bn of fraud has been committed, they are trying to recover the money, but it is difficult. The authorities are working quite well, because they have already managed to recover HUF 1.5bn.

Government action makes sense, which is why they have given the police additional financial resources so that more people can work on preventing and eliminating these frauds, and then, if the problem has occurred, to remedy it, he added.

Retvari: Police crack down on Ukrainian online fraudsters

Hungarian police have been cracking down on Ukrainian criminal groups that have committed various types of online fraud, a government official said on Thursday.

Bence Retvari, the parliamentary state secretary of the interior ministry, said in a post on Facebook that the scams included cryptocurrency fraud and fake package deliveries.

Police have identified 169 Ukrainian suspects, including managers and front men for the criminal gang's money laundering activities.

International arrest warrants have been issued against people involved in money laundering, phishing and operating fake call centres.

Retvari listed various crimes committed throughout Hungary, and noted that the largest ever illegal call centre network also operated in Ukraine in which Hungarians were swindled out of money by criminals pretending to call from banks.

For more see the video below.

Source: MTI – Hungary’s national news agency since 1881. While MTI articles are usually factual, some may contain political bias, and readers should be aware that such content does not reflect the position of XpatLoop, which is neutral and independent.

Since the goal of XpatLoop is to keep readers well briefed, right across the spectrum of opinions, MTI items are shared to ensure readers are aware of all the key narratives within the media landscape.

XpatLoop believes in empowering readers to form their own views through complete and comprehensive coverage. To facilitate this XpatLoop has a balanced range of news partners, as you can see when you surf around XpatLoop.com

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