Suspect arrested after €32,000 loss in LuxTrust scam

Luxembourg police have arrested a man during an investigation into a LuxTrust scam in which €32,000 was allegedly stolen.

Grand Ducal police were first made aware of the scam on Wednesday, with “initial information” indicating an estimated loss of €32,000, officers said in a bulletin Friday. The suspect was arrested and brought before a magistrate the same day.

Officers also searched the suspect’s home and vehicle, seizing documents and telephones, police said.

Police did not say whether the arrest was linked to this week’s 24-hour outage of some LuxTrust services.

LuxTrust is an authentication system used by Luxembourg residents to access their bank accounts and the government’s online services portal.

Luxembourg police said there have been many reports of scams in recent days linked to the LuxTrust authentication system. Under the scam a fake bank or LuxTrust employee contacts a victim claiming someone has withdrawn large amounts of money using the victim’s bank card or saying there are problems with their account.

Victims are then invited to visit a fake LuxTrust website via a text message link. They are then tricked into entering their LuxTrust and bank details allowing scammers to enter the victims accounts and transfer “considerable sums”, according to police.

Police urged victims who suspect they are victim of a fraud to contact their official bank to verify it is them.

(This story was originally published in Virgule, machine translated using AI and edited by Kate Oglesby.)