The Ministry of Internal Affairs has warned about a new scam scheme that starts with a fake chat regarding housing and utility services. Scammers add a potential victim to such a chat and send a link for voting on utility services.

The victim clicks on the link, enters four digits from the received SMS code — and immediately falls into the trap. They are informed about a “personal account hack” on “Gosuslugi”, then a supposed specialist from the Ministry of Digital Development connects, warning about the threat of unauthorized withdrawal of money from bank accounts. The outcome is a demand to transfer all funds to a “safe account”.

The scheme uses a legitimate reason — everyday housing and utility issues, which arouse less suspicion among citizens than a call from the “bank security service”. In reality, the mechanism is the same: the fake voting serves only as a pretext for extorting a digital code. The Ministry of Internal Affairs advises not to click on suspicious links from unverified chats and not to disclose SMS confirmation codes to strangers.