Scammers lured people into their networks by promising wealth and power in exchange for joining the secret society of the Illuminati. They also looked for someone to give away pianos and other things. These strange offers came in the form of Nigerian spam. In 2024, more than 155,000 such letters were blocked in Russia. Experts are confident that in 2025 this type of cyber threat will remain relevant, and the number of mailings will only grow.
Top 5 Wild Stories in "Nigerian" Mailings
Experts at Kaspersky Lab have compiled a list of the five most unusual offers from scammers. In first place was a mailing in which attackers lured victims into a secret society of the Illuminati. They promised to share wealth and power. In another spam campaign, scammers were looking for someone to give a piano to, allegedly due to the death of the previous owner and the relocation of the heir.
The top five popular scams also included the story of generous Samaritans. In some cases, scammers pretend to be wealthy elderly people who have won a large sum in the lottery. They send letters on behalf of this person, offering to share part of the winnings with the recipients. To give the letter more credibility, scammers may attach fake documents confirming the identity of the generous giver.
The attackers came up with another cunning plan: they sent letters on behalf of a large financial organization. These letters stated that "corrupt employees" were trying to steal the addressee's money. The fake bankers claimed that they had already taken measures and were ready to pay a large sum if the user contacted them.
Scammers deceive not only ordinary people, but also companies. In one of their schemes, they pretended to be looking for a business to invest in. To start a "partnership" with the company, they asked to reply to their letter.
The main danger of "Nigerian" letters is that a person may not notice the risks: there are no phishing links or suspicious attachments in the messages. Scammers use exclusively social engineering techniques to extort money, come up with convincing baits and correspond with the victim for a long time to achieve their goal.
In 2024, the company's specialists successfully prevented the distribution of more than 155,000 messages that can be classified as "Nigerian spam."
Experts note that, despite the fact that such fraudulent schemes have been around for a long time, they still pose a danger, as attackers are constantly improving their methods.
To protect yourself from scammers, experts recommend being critical of any generous offers, even if they seem familiar to you. Check the contact information provided in the letter: if it does not match the sender's address, this should raise suspicion. Experts also advise paying attention to errors and typos in messages, as they may contain hidden attachments.
Fighting Cyber Fraudsters
"Nigerian letters" are a well-known type of fraud that has been around for decades. Attackers are constantly coming up with new ways to deceive in order to extort money from gullible people, said Alexey Gorelkin, CEO of Phishman and a resident of Skolkovo. According to him, such letters usually ask you to go to the site and enter payment data there or install an application for further attack.
A unified bill on measures to combat cyber fraud is planned to be submitted to the State Duma in the spring of 2025. Some of the 30 measures that will be proposed in it are already known: this is the formation of a database of voices of telephone scammers, a ban on mass spam calls, robocalls and SMS mailings, as well as marking calls from legal entities.
The specialist also stressed that the launch of a Unified National Platform for combating Internet fraudsters is planned for 2026. A pilot project may be implemented this year. Currently, work is underway on the project jointly with federal executive authorities, banks, the Central Bank and telecom operators.
Over the past year, the number of cyber attacks on Russian companies has also increased. It increased 2.5 times compared to 2023 and reached 130 thousand, as calculated by RED Security analysts. At the same time, most of the attacks were aimed at critical industrial and infrastructure facilities. Since the beginning of 2025, there have already been several serious cyber attacks, and experts predict that in the future the share of successful cyber attacks may reach 10%.
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