False accusations and threats of legal action

Police Administration building, Photo: Boris Pejović

The Police Directorate has warned citizens about the occurrence of fraud by currently unknown persons who sent emails with inaccurate and false content to multiple email addresses during the previous night and today, falsely claiming to be acting on behalf of the Police Directorate of Montenegro.

“Officers of the Crime Prevention Sector, after analyzing the content of the disputed e-mail, determined that it was a so-called spam e-mail using the ⁠post.com⁠ email service. Attached is a fake PDF document with the alleged letterhead of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Police Directorate (CB Podgorica) and the Europol logo, with the registration number ⁠05-332/25-4540/6⁠, under the subject ‘Initiation of legal proceedings’,” the police announced.

The disputed PDF attachment, it is added, falsely states that legal proceedings are being initiated against the recipient for an alleged criminal offense related to child pornography, with the sender citing Article 211 of the Criminal Code of Montenegro.

“The recipient is requested to send their explanation to a fake e-mail address (⁠pjpodgorica.rukovodilac@post.com⁠), with the threat that otherwise the report will be forwarded to the competent judicial authority. We urge citizens and recipients of this or similar e-mails to be cautious and inform them that they should not respond to such e-mails, nor should they open attachments that could potentially contain malicious content. It is recommended that the e-mail in question be deleted immediately upon receipt and that further e-mails from the same address be prohibited (the sender is blocked),” it was announced.

The police remind us that this is not the first time that the name and visual identity of state bodies and financial entities have been misused, all in attempts to defraud citizens, and we call on the public to be more cautious and behave responsibly in the digital space.