Two are suspected of attempted fraud with 5000 DigiD accounts

The FIOD arrested a man and a woman from the municipality of Roosendaal this week on suspicion of computer intrusion. The duo may have tried to abuse five thousand DigiD accounts. In 180 cases this would have been successful.

According to the Public Prosecution Service, it has been determined that 5,000 DigiD accounts may have been used unauthorized. The man and woman are said to have found out passwords and account names of citizens via phishing. This allowed them to change bank accounts and telephone numbers on government sites in order to have benefits credited to account numbers they manage. Those accounts were made available by so-called ‘money mules’ and four of them have also been arrested. The FIOD was able to map seventy of these suspicious accounts.

Especially among older people it was possible to extract the DigiD data by means of e-mails and telephone contact. In total, an estimated 50,000 euros was stolen. In addition to computer trespassing, the two are also charged with intruding on an automated network. The administrator of DigiD, Logius, has replaced the five thousand DigiD accounts and the victims have been compensated by the government. At the beginning of this year, a large-scale fraud with DigiD was also discovered.