Tinkoff Bank reported a new extortion scheme by telephone scammers. The scheme is hybrid: the victim is "processed" and confused by several interlocutors in a row.
How it works
One of the interlocutors pretends to be an employee of a bank, telecom operator, or other structure. He will demand, under various pretexts, a code from an SMS with access to a personal account in some service. Later, the interlocutor admits that he is a fraudster and may even make some demands.
After him, the remaining participants in the scheme begin to call the victim: they allegedly try to help the victim of the fraudster. They introduce themselves as bank employees, police officers, employees of "Gosuslugi" or other structures.
Under the pretext of helping, the victim is asked to name the code from the SMS and the password to log into "Gosuslugi", the card number, password, and SMS code to log into the bank account. This is allegedly done in order to prevent the theft of information or funds.
The scammers persuade the victim to download a "bank application" or "antivirus" to their smartphone, which is a spyware program with remote access. This is how they finally gain access to banking applications, "Gosuslugi," and the victim's personal data on the smartphone.
Then they either zero out the accounts themselves, or push the completely confused person to do this. They are forced to transfer their money to a certain third-party "safe account" of a fake police officer or someone else.
To protect its customers from such troubles, Tinkoff was the first bank in Russia to launch the "Protect or Return Money" service for Tinkoff Mobile subscribers. It identifies fraud during a call with a probability of more than 99% thanks to the "Neuroshield" technology based on characteristic behavioral patterns.
If something goes wrong in the conversation, the call is blocked and interrupted. This way, the victim does not have time to fall into a trance, panic, and begin to fulfill the requirements of the fraudsters. In parallel with this, a fraud monitoring program operates in the service. It analyzes many factors, identifies anomalies in the client's transactions after a suspicious call that was interrupted, and signals the danger. If the technologies suddenly do not work and the client is deceived by fraudsters, the bank will compensate for the monetary losses.
In six months, the service saved customers from losing 170 million rubles, and those who had already suffered from fraudsters received compensation totaling 4.5 million rubles thanks to it. "Neuroshield" is constantly learning and being updated with new action scenarios. Now there is also a new multi-level scheme with many interlocutors, the main goal of which is to seize other people's funds. Tinkoff Bank says that the number of attacks by telephone fraudsters has increased 3.5 times in recent months (during the period January-March 2024).
What to do if they call "from the bank", "from the police", "from the telecom operator", and so on
You need to be vigilant and not negotiate with scammers, stop the suspicious conversation. As Tinkoff reminds, there are several simple rules:
- Real police officers will send you a subpoena or official letter for important notifications. The police use phone calls extremely rarely;
- A real bank employee will never ask you for a code from an SMS or a card number, or a password from it, to connect a service or cancel a suspicious transaction on the account;
- To avoid losing money, in any unclear or doubtful situation, call the bank at the official phone number on the back of the card or write to the support service in the official bank application;
- Never download and install any applications if a stranger asks you to do so by phone or in a messenger — even if he introduces himself as a police officer, bank employee, or employee of other services. This may be a remote access program. It will allow fraudsters to see everything that happens on your mobile phone screen and is stored on the phone — including passwords from banks and government services;
- Remember that no telecom operator will call you to extend the contract, and especially not request any code from an SMS. Contracts for communication services are indefinite and do not require renewal.
Read materials on the topic:
Protect your "Gosuslugi" — The Ministry of Digital Development warns Russians about a new fraud
AI scammers extort money using fabricated voices of the leadership of SUSU