The mobile operator MTS presented the figures for the operation of its "Defender" service in the period from December 31, 2025 to January 11, 2026, when scammers were particularly active. Criminals attempted to make over 30 million calls.
The peak of malicious activity occurred on January 5 and 6, when more than 35% of all calls were recorded. Analysts attribute this to the low vigilance of citizens during the holidays and the high chance of answering a call from an unknown number. Criminals tried to call one resident of Tomsk more than 2,500 times, but the operator successfully blocked these calls.
The average duration of the conversation was only 11 seconds, which indicates the desire of criminals to quickly achieve results. This short duration of dialogue is a characteristic sign of an aggressive scheme designed for instant reaction.
The most frequent topic of attack was investment offers, accounting for 41% of the total number of calls. Scammers offered "profitable investments" or informed about "problems with a brokerage account".
The second most popular category was calls from allegedly government agencies. Scammers posed as employees of the pension fund, social workers or law enforcement officers - 20% of calls. Another 13% of cases were related to the imitation of problems with telecom operators, when criminals tried to extract bank card data, posing as support service.
The largest number of fraudulent calls was recorded in large cities with a more affluent population. Moscow, Krasnodar and St. Petersburg were among the most attacked.
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