"Recent statistics show that frauds in general have gone up 20 percent, as have all kinds of scams," said Urmet Tambre, Criminal Bureau chief at the Police and Border Guard Board's (PPA) North Prefecture, on ETV's "Terevisioon" Friday morning.

Many scams involve callers claiming to their victims that a loved one has been in some kind of accident.

"The scammers' goal is to confuse the person and throw them into such a panic that they will give their money away themselves," Tambre explained. "People often think that technology can be used to stop this process, but the truth is, it can't."

Scammers also rely on the fact that elderly people might have cash at home.

"Everything happens quickly — once they have your address, the [scammers] are immediately at the door and take your money," he warned.

In recent months, there has been an emerging trend of scam phone calls that focus on building trust first, instead of immediately asking for PIN codes, passwords or money.

According to Tambre, double calls like this have recently been made first claiming to be from Estonian logistics and postal service provider Omniva.

"They call and say they have a registered letter for you, and ask where you live so they can deliver it to your home," the police official described. "Shortly after, the 'police' call and say you had been contacted by scammers earlier, and now you need to verify your identity by entering your [PIN] codes."

Once the victim enters their PIN codes, the scammers can then make money transfers on their behalf.

Calls made across the country can display the Estonian country code +372, which is important as many people won't pick up calls from foreign numbers.

"Once this became technologically possible, people's trust in phone calls surged again," Tambre noted. "Criminals also buy Estonian SIM cards and SIM boxes that contain multiple cards, using them to make automated calls."

Over the past month, there has also been an uptick in scam calls made in Estonian.

"A week ago, scam calls started claiming to be the Health Board," he noted. "They're in Estonian, and promise lower [appointment] copays."

While many safeguards have been put in place to prevent scams, Tambre acknowledged that the target is still ultimately the individual person, who is the only one capable of figuratively taking the scammer by the hand and guiding them past all the obstacles to giving them their money — something the police often see happen.

The only thing that still helps is being aware of all the scammers' schemes.

"That's the only thing that prompts people to hang up these calls," Tambre confirmed. "If someone hasn't heard about these scams, they end up going along with the scammer."

All scam calls should also be reported to the police, he added.

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