Russians have been warned about a new fraud scheme involving the replacement of contacts in phones. This was reported by the UBK of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia.
Fraudsters send messages in messengers, disguising them as notifications from banks, delivery services, government agencies or acquaintances.
These messages contain a link to a file in .vcf format, which is used as an electronic business card. When you open such a file, the smartphone offers to save the contact or update the existing one. As a result, a new number may appear in the victim's address book or an old one may change, which allows fraudsters to impersonate acquaintances or official organizations.
A .vcf file is a standard business card format. It contains contact information: name, phone numbers, email, address, position, etc. When you receive a .vcf file (for example, from a new acquaintance or colleague) and open it on your smartphone, the system usually offers to save this contact to your address book. This is a convenient and legal way to exchange contacts.
Law enforcement officers noted that the process of saving a contact occurs quickly and often without unnecessary notifications, so the user may not even notice the changes. In this regard, the Ministry of Internal Affairs advised saving the numbers of banks, government agencies and delivery services manually and not trusting the sent files in order to avoid deception.
Subscribe to the news of "First Technical" on Google News to stay up to date with the latest events from the world of science and technology.
Read materials on the topic:
Unscrupulous mortgage assistants threaten Russians
Data at your fingertips: why and how fraudsters hack the public services of Russians
Now on home
Start of deliveries scheduled for 2027
Over 51,000 new motorcycles were sold in Russia in 2025
The car will take at least a year to assemble
The application's audience has reached 20 million users
The model will be included in the list of cars for taxis, price - from 2.25 million rubles
All parking lots of the "Administrator of the Moscow Parking Space" are connected to the service
The cars will be supplied to the Moscow Transport Service Directorate
Deliveries to India may begin in 2028
The technology provides automated search for all types of defects in power units
The plane flew 500 km, accelerating to 425 km/h
The plant stated that the information about the termination of purchases for models 6 and 8 is not true
Scientists are using the "Ekran-M" installation