Fraudsters are becoming more active before the long weekend and Russia Day. They use fake raffles, "Russia Day payments", fake notifications from banks and calls from fake Ministry of Internal Affairs employees to extort money from people. This was announced by Anton Nemkin, member of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, federal coordinator of the "Digital Russia" party project.
On the eve of public holidays, especially when citizens are expecting a long weekend, fraudsters traditionally become more active. Russia Day is no exception. Against the background of festive relaxation and reduced information vigilance of people, fraudsters adapt their schemes to the patriotic and social agenda. It is important to warn citizens in advance about possible threats. One of the most popular schemes is fake holiday raffles and "Russia Day payments".
Nemkin said that fraudsters send people links on behalf of government agencies, "Gosuslugi" or banks. The messages promise payments of 10 thousand rubles and other "state gifts". To receive the money, you allegedly need to enter card details, log in to a fake website or install an application.
This is pure phishing. No government body makes payments in this way.
Nemkin explained that the second scheme is fake notifications from banks or payment systems. For example, you receive a message about a holiday payment and a request to confirm your login. The links lead to sites that look like official ones, but are actually created to steal your online banking username and password. Such attacks are especially dangerous if you have SMS codes enabled. Having received both the login and the one-time code, the attackers gain full access to your account.
According to Nemkin, fraudsters often call on behalf of employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the prosecutor's office or the financial monitoring service.
Using panic and the atmosphere of "increased checks during the holidays", fraudsters intimidate citizens by saying that suspicious transfers are allegedly associated with their account. Then they offer to "transfer funds to a safe account" - which is a classic theft scheme.
Nemkin emphasized that the key rule for ensuring security is not to follow links from dubious sources, especially when it comes to "government events" and "payments".
All official social support measures are provided exclusively through government channels, such as government services websites, agency websites, and major media outlets. It is impossible to access these measures through messengers without prior registration.
It is important to remember that bank and government officials will never contact you by phone to ask you to transfer money or provide access codes. If someone on the phone demands urgent action, money transfer or authorization from you, it is most likely a scam. In such situations, it is best to simply end the conversation and call the official number of the bank or institution.
The main thing is the awareness of the citizens themselves. The higher the vigilance, the lower the chances of success for fraudsters, even the most sophisticated ones.
Earlier, Kaspersky specialists identified a fake KeePass password manager, which attackers used to steal user data. Passwords from the database were stored in unencrypted form, which allowed fraudsters to gain access to accounts.
Read more on the topic:
How to behave in a conversation with scammers: advice from the Ministry of Internal Affairs
Fraudsters convince Russians to take out a car loan: here's how they do it
A function for submitting fraud reports will appear on "Gosuslugi"
Data at your fingertips: why and how fraudsters hack into the "Gosuslugi" of Russians