Bank branch director arrested over theft of €100,000 from elderly client
A bank director from Sector 2 has been arrested, suspected of embezzling nearly €100,000 from an account belonging to an elderly client through 13 unauthorised transactions.
Bank director in Bucharest detained after embezzling nearly €100,000 from client account
A 45-year-old man, director of a bank branch in Sector 2 of the capital, was detained following a house search carried out on 8 October 2026, according to goldring.ro. He is being investigated for carrying out fraudulent financial transactions and unlawful access to a computer system.
According to investigators, the suspect embezzled nearly €100,000 from the account of an elderly client who had trusted him and previously asked him to access the account on his behalf. The director used the client's details to carry out 13 unauthorised transactions in the period 2022–2023. Judicial supervision for 60 days was imposed against him.
The investigation was conducted by the Economic and Financial Crime Investigation Brigade.
Hundreds of complaints regarding bank fraud in 2026
The case comes against the background of a generalised increase in fraud on banking channels. The Alternative Dispute Resolution Centre in the Banking Sector (CSALB) received, during the course of this year alone, over 170 requests relating to such incidents. The most frequent situations involve fraudulent loans being taken out in the name of consumers, typically after they have allowed third parties access to passwords, internet banking applications or mobile devices.
CSALB also analyses cases in which victims themselves took out loans, subsequently transferring the sums to unknown accounts, under the influence of promises of quick gains from shares or cryptocurrencies. Damages in the examined cases amount to as much as €20,000, but banks reject the majority of reconciliation requests, citing the fact that security systems have not been compromised, but rather access was provided by the account holders themselves.
Methods used by criminals: malware, deepfake and psychological manipulation
Among the reported techniques are malware attacks involving remote takeover of mobile phones, psychological manipulation through impersonation of bank employees, police officers or representatives of the National Bank of Romania (BNR), as well as identity theft through video identification subsequently used in deepfake procedures.
Alexandru Păunescu, the BNR's representative within CSALB, warns that criminals resort to emotional manipulation in order to mislead victims. The BNR, together with DNSC and the Romanian Banking Association (ARB), recommends that consumers and entrepreneurs never disclose access data — username, password or PIN —, do not install applications at the request of unknown persons and verify the authenticity of any urgent financial request exclusively through the official channels of the institutions.
Source: Google News RO — Crime (ro)