Phone scams have cost victims more than €20 million in Lithuania this year alone. President Gitanas Nausėda has called on law enforcement to take additional measures to combat the growing problem, yet experts warn that no country has fully effective systems to stop scammers.
The Prosecutor’s Office says it has trained additional prosecutors to handle fraud cases, now numbering 132. Meanwhile, the Presidential Office has proposed creating specialised units within law enforcement dedicated to investigating scam cases.
Network operators are also taking action, developing a shared system to block suspicious phone numbers. However, experts note that criminals quickly adapt to new countermeasures.
Recent months have seen individuals lose anywhere from a few thousand to hundreds of thousands of euros to phone scammers, though some citizens do not suffer any loses by remaining cautious.
Vilnius resident Ričardas Sabaliauskas said he became alerted when called by an unknown number speaking Russian.
“He claimed to be some sort of Telekom operator, saying my contract had ended,” he recounted.
According to the Prosecutor’s Office, the scale of fraud in the country is increasing daily. This year alone, the total losses have exceeded €20 million. Currently, more than 2,300 preliminary investigations have been opened into nearly 4,000 criminal offences.
“When we identify a match, such as the same IP address, we merge these preliminary investigations into a single case and examine it as one, even though it involves multiple criminal offences,” explained Prosecutor-General Nida Grunskienė.
This week, President Gitanas Nausėda called on law enforcement to step up efforts against phone scams. According to the president’s adviser, too few fraud cases are currently being investigated.
“Law enforcement agencies should establish specialised units – or perhaps a single elite unit – dedicated to systematically investigating this type of fraud,” suggested the president’s adviser, Andrius Varnelis.
Operators are employing artificial intelligence to block messages containing malicious links or calls from spoofed numbers.
“The call may originate from abroad, but a Lithuanian number is used to make the recipient more likely to answer, giving an impression of legitimacy,” noted Asta Buitkutė, head of communications at Tele2.
Operators cannot block calls made from other networks, but a shared system is under development.
“We are finalising a joint system that will allow us to exchange data quickly. For example, if a Tele2 subscriber’s number is called from abroad but the subscriber has not travelled, we will be able to block that call across the Telia network,” said Vytautas Bučinskas, head of business assurance and resilience at Telia Lietuva.
Vitalijus Gurčinas, a lecturer at Vilnius Tech, stressed that scammers adapt rapidly, often using professional IT specialists and devices such as “SIM boxes” which allow one to make simultaneous calls across multiple countries. Illegally obtained funds are frequently transferred through multiple international accounts, delaying investigations.
“When we start a preliminary investigation, we need to seek assistance from those countries. By the time mutual legal assistance requests or European Investigation Orders are processed and translated, the money is often already gone,” said Grunskienė.
She added that the process often has to be repeated, and recovering funds also requires luck. Victims are urged to report scams to law enforcement immediately.
“If people only report to the police or prosecutor’s office after a long delay, there is little chance of stopping the transfer of funds,” she said.
President Nausėda’s adviser, Andrius Varnelis, noted that international solutions should also be explored, involving the European Commission.
“Communication is ongoing with major platforms like Meta and Google, through which these scams are often initiated, and where ads and messages are distributed via WhatsApp and iMessage,” he said.
However, Gurčinas emphasised that no country has yet achieved effective protection against phone scams. Radical countermeasures may also impose costs on legitimate service providers.
“Some countries may be a few steps ahead, but these steps are costly. Technological solutions implemented affected the work of legitimate institutions in the ecosystem, which in turn caused dissatisfaction,” he said.
Authorities advise that if a call or message claims to be from a government institution, recipients should first verify it by calling official numbers listed on institutional websites. Citizens are encouraged to report scams via the National Cybersecurity Centre’s website.
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