Although fraud and scams cannot be prevented entirely, operating them needs to be made as hard as possible and as unattractive to criminals as possible concluded a public seminar today at Eesti Pank on stopping the pandemic of payment scams. The key to stopping payment fraud is rapid adaptation, stronger prevention, and for different parties to work closely together so that scams do not notably reduce the convenience of and speed of services within Estonia as a digital country.

Estonia is at the top of Europe for the speed of payments at the moment, and this is considered important by people and businesses. “It is in everyone’s interests for Estonian banking to remain adapted for the digital state and the digital era”, said Sandra Horma, head of the fraud prevention committee of the Estonian Banking Association. This calls for a primary focus on how to protect the public by using practical and systemic methods that do not deny the typical consumer access to the convenient solutions they have become used to. Ms Horma added that banks already apply various prevention and containment methods, but that joint work is continuing to make sure that the solutions are proportionate. This makes maintaining the current speed and convenience of payment services and authentication a priority alongside security.

Several telecommunications companies are also making a major contribution every day to preventing fraud. “We at Telia are working to make sure that people can operate securely in the digital world, and that their home networks and the devices connected to them are protected as well as they can be against possible attacks”, said Head of Connectivity Business Area at Telia, Evelin Neerot. Telia has been applying solutions for a long time now that prevent scam calls getting through to clients. Telia alone blocked some 24 million scam calls in 2025, and together with the other two large telecommunications operators they blocked a total of around 35 million such calls last year. Ms Neerot explained that one of the biggest problems is spoofing, which is where the number of the caller is faked. “The best way to stop such calls is for all of the communications service providers to apply protection mechanisms. This makes it important for solutions to be broadly based and to be applied even by the smallest communication service providers”, she said.

Unfortunately it is not possible to block all scam calls, and so how people and companies react to them remains of critical importance. “The most important thing to remember is that no state institution would ever call somebody and ask for their PIN code. You should only ever confirm a transaction with your PIN code if you have started the transaction process yourself and know clearly why you are entering the code. If somebody on the telephone talks about a secret police operation and puts pressure on you to hand over your money or bankcard for security reasons, then this is a scam, and you must hang up at once”, said Jaagup Toompuu, head of the fraud resolution and prevention unit of the Police and Border Guard Board. “The typical victims of scams today are a cross-section of our whole society, and so everybody has to be careful”.

Experts say that payment fraud is a global and rapidly changing form of crime and fighting against it needs constant adaptation. Scammers have become cleverer and cleverer, and anybody can fall victim to them, whatever their gender, native language or level of education. They are very aware of current issues and trends in society, and can use this to make their stories more believable and to confuse people.

“It is important to fight fraud at every link in the chain of execution”, said Head of the Anti-Financial Crime Division at Swedbank Raul Vahtra. He said it would be worth considering whether to make it compulsory for all service providers whose services or systems are used by scammers to put anti-fraud measures in place. They should also be given the rights they need, but this should be done with care and should be well coordinated. Success would mean making it harder to run scams in Estonia than in other countries. “We have to minimise the percentage of scams that are successful, and increase the risk to the perpetrators of being caught. This would make Estonia a less attractive place for them to operate”, he said.

The seminar highlighted the need to continue with broad and consistent information and communications work so that spotting and identifying frauds would become an automatic reaction for people. The state and the service providers need to develop their technical and legal solutions further to prevent fraud and scams. Avoiding new risks is also important and the idea that has been discussed in the media for example of making the process of transferring mobile phone numbers lightning quick in Estonia could make it easier to hijack telephone numbers and could give attackers access to people’s digital identities. This might not be a good idea at a time when cyber fraud is so widespread.

Deputy Governor of Eesti Pank Andrus Alber summarised the seminar by commending all those who work every day to fight against fraud. “There are many institutions and people involved and the resources dedicated to this fight are much greater than you might imagine looking on from the outside. The law is currently being drafted to make it easier for the banks and the police to share information about scammers and make the banks better able to stop payments when they suspect fraud”, he said, adding that he hoped that the change would be adopted quickly.

A lot has been done already, and the work continues. The shared goal is to reduce the impact of frauds and scams and keep the Estonian digital environment safe, without sacrificing the convenience and flexibility of services. “In some cases we may need to compromise on some convenience, but a reasonable and balanced middle way must be found so that trust can be maintained in the digital world”, he observed.

The seminar on Thursday on preventing payment fraud is part of a series of public seminars organised by Eesti Pank that are held to highlight topical issues affecting the Estonian economy and provide a platform for experts and policymakers to discuss them.

Further information:
Hanna Jürgenson
Communications Officer of Eesti Pank
5692 0930
Email: [email protected]
Press enquiries: [email protected]