Polish banking is facing a series of challenges. PKO BP has dealt with a severe transaction system outage, while Bank Pekao S.A. is warning about fake emails. Simultaneously, the Police are reporting massive citizen losses due to vishing and investment scams. The situation is worsened by a global trend of rising crime on the Telegram platform, where the number of payment frauds has increased by over 200 percent in a year.
Outage and Disruptions at PKO BP
The largest bank in Poland restored access to its systems after an outage but has announced further technical work that will limit withdrawals and payments.
Alert at Bank Pekao S.A.
The institution warns about fake email messages with attachments designed to steal customer login credentials.
Explosion of Crime on Telegram
The number of payment-related frauds on this messenger increased by 233% in 2025, becoming a global problem.
Recent days have seen a convergence of negative events in the financial sector, directly impacting the security and comfort of customers of the largest institutions in Poland. The largest Polish bank, PKO BP, struggled with a widespread outage of its iPKO service systems and the IKO mobile app. For many hours, customers reported an inability to make transfers and a lack of access to view their account balance. Although the bank officially apologized for the disruptions and restored full system functionality, further technical breaks have already been announced, which are also expected to affect card payments and ATM withdrawals. Simultaneously, a wave of phishing campaigns targeting Bank Pekao S.A. customers has intensified. Fraudsters are distributing email messages with dangerous attachments, the opening of which risks infecting the device and loss of funds. Cybersecurity experts point to the extremely high growth rate of crime on the Telegram messenger. According to data from the Italian and Spanish markets, this platform has become the fastest-growing channel for distributing payment fraud, recording a 233% increase year-on-year. Since the widespread adoption of electronic banking in the late 1990s, fraud methods have evolved from simple phone calls to technically advanced social engineering campaigns using artificial intelligence. The situation also concerns users of platforms like Revolut or Netflix, where criminals use mechanisms involving sending fake links to update payment data. The Police also warn about the increasing phenomenon of vishing. In just one of the described cases, a Polish resident lost over 200,000 PLN after a conversation with a supposed bank consultant. The uniformed services appeal for special caution when receiving SMS messages about alleged fines or overdue road tolls, where a single-letter error in the URL address can lead to bank identity theft.