Mobile operator Bite Latvija will automatically block calls from phone scammers, the company’s representatives told LETA.
The company points out that the anti-call scam solution will allow blocking calls disguised as Latvian numbers, including calls from Latvian mobile and fixed network numbers that are not assigned to any operator, calls from Bite Latvija mobile network numbers that are made from abroad but, according to Bite Latvija system data, are not located abroad, as well as calls from Latvian fixed network numbers that are made from abroad.
Fraudulent calls will be blocked automatically and customers will not need to take any additional actions. The solution will become an additional feature integrated into the tariff plan and will be available to every Bite Latvija customer free of charge.
At the same time, Arunas Mickevicius, General Director of Bite Latvija, notes that the solution developed by Bite Lietuva, a Bite Group company, will be implemented in Latvia on a trial basis.
Reinis Pudans, Head of Internal Security Processes at Bite Latvija, mentions that both in Lithuania and Latvia customers often receive calls as if from police or bank employees. Most often, fraudsters do this from call centers set up abroad, masquerading the outgoing call numbers as real phone numbers registered in each country.
“Fraudsters are so sophisticated that they have found ways to use numbers that are similar or even the same as police stations or bank information service numbers, thus building trust,” notes Pudans.
At the same time, he points out that fraudsters in Lithuania are currently trying to circumvent the new solution, so active monitoring work is underway to make the necessary improvements.
Edgars Pastars, Senior Legal Advisor at the Financial Industry Association, notes that financial fraud is not unique to Latvia – it is a problem across Europe, so the solution to this problem must be transnational and cross-sectoral, and cannot be dealt with just by banks and law enforcement officials.
He also mentions that in 2023, a total of more than 8,500 cases of telephone fraud were recorded, most of which were intercepted and prevented.
As reported, in 2022 Bite Latvija had a turnover of EUR 149.824 million, which is 11.3 percent more than a year before, while the company’s profit increased by 1.1 percent and amounted to EUR 22.252 million. The company’s financial figures for 2023 have not yet been published.
Bite Latvija was registered in 2005 and has a share capital of EUR 99,085,286. Bite Latvija is filly owned by Bite Lietuva, a Lithuanian company and a subsidiary of Providence Equity Partners, an international asset management company.
Source: BNS
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