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Mobile phones have become an integral part of everyone's life: email, bank accounts and other confidential data are linked to them, making them one of the main targets of attackers. Knowing only a phone number, scammers often manage to force the victim to infect their device themselves or transfer confidential information into the wrong hands.
Photo: Igor Nikitin, Kommersant / buy photo
Photo: Igor Nikitin, Kommersant / buy photo
Some types of deception are not easy to recognize, so you need to be on the lookout for new schemes. This is much more effective than restoring already stolen accounts.
In June 2022, the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs listed six main types of telephone fraud. The most popular scheme is a “fake” message about a relative who is in trouble.
Relative in trouble
The attacker may introduce himself to the potential victim as an acquaintance, friend, or simply a random witness. After reporting that one of the interlocutor’s relatives was involved in an accident or committed this or that offense, the criminal hands over the phone, supposedly to a law enforcement representative, who confirms the incident. After pressure and intimidation, the imaginary representative of the authorities offers to resolve the issue for a certain amount of money, which can reach either 1 thousand rubles or $30 thousand. In this case, the money will need to be transferred to a third party or brought to a special place.
Call or message to paid numbers
The method of telephone deception, when the victim of a scam tries to call a paid phone number, is rightfully considered the oldest and most proven scheme. The simplest one is that a person receives a call from an unfamiliar number, but the call ends abruptly or is dropped after dialing. When trying to call back, the subscriber either receives long beeps in response, or “communicates” with the answering machine turned on. In both cases, the call is paid, and money from the account of the curious mobile phone owner is transferred to the account of the scammer.
Fraud by telephone numbers, for which you have to pay for calls or messages, is used very often and in a variety of variations. For example, unscrupulous people send SMS with a “lucrative” offer to send a message in order to receive a small amount “as a gift” into their account. Most often, those who respond to this are not only not replenished, but the SMS sent costs several times more than the amount of the offered “gift”.
The content of SMS with requests to call a specified number can be very different: a plea to help a sick child, an offer to get acquainted, to change the mobile phone tariff to a more favorable one, greetings and congratulations from supposedly familiar people, etc... Sometimes scammers turn to passers-by on the street with a request to borrow a cell phone telephone to "call". After one or several calls, a responsive mobile phone owner discovers that the balance is significantly less.
Winning the lottery
Fraudsters can also call numbers from their collected database, posing as radio station presenters, and report winning a prize. Criminals often pose as representatives of a mobile operator. They say into the phone that they have held a lottery among listeners of the radio station or among users of one or another mobile operator, and they call to congratulate you on your win.
Then the winner is asked to call back on one or another number, he is congratulated again, and all the details are explained. To receive a prize, the winner must first pay a deposit of a certain amount, which, according to the criminals, will be returned on the day the prizes are awarded. However, after the money is transferred, the scammer disappears.
Act three: “bring your money - otherwise there will be trouble”
Apparently, at this moment the scammers decided that the iron was already hot and it was time to forge it. And we have come to the climax of this performance.
An already familiar “employee of Bank B,” Alexey Alekseevich, called me back, asked me to stay on the line and advised me to quickly transfer money from the current account to a new one - which, of course, he had already helpfully set up for me. He offered a lot of transfer options, but “in no case through a compromised branch”: either through the application, or through a partner ATM of another bank, which had not previously appeared in any conversation at all. And even better, said Alexey Alekseevich, link a new account through Google Pay and transfer all the money there - supposedly this is the fastest way. Only then did the meaning of the performance finally become clear.
The bottom line is an hour and a half of wasted time, a considerable amount of wasted nerves, unnecessary re-issuance of cards from banks A and B (just in case), changing passwords.
I realized it in time, but a friend of mine a year ago was less fortunate: his fake bank employees nevertheless persuaded him to transfer 200,000 rubles to a “safe account”. True, he was going to buy a motorcycle with this money - maybe he himself would be safer now.
How to avoid being scammed on the phone
To avoid becoming a victim of scammers, you should not accept calls from unfamiliar and hidden numbers. You can install an application on your phone that searches for the owner of the number on the Internet.
If you do receive a call that looks like a scam, you can stall for time and make the attacker nervous - say that you are looking for a card and hang on the phone for ten to fifteen minutes. Or end the conversation with the phrase “yes, I was the one who withdrew the money, everything is fine!” If the criminal realizes that the victim suspects something, he will simply stop talking and continue calling others.
If you receive a message or call about an incident with a relative, acquaintance or friend in trouble, you should try to contact him through instant messengers or call him. If a person does not respond to messages and calls, then you need to check how long ago he was on social networks, and also contact the people who communicate with him most often or who may be nearby.
If you suspect that someone on the phone is imitating the voice of a friend or relative, you need to ask the interlocutor leading questions, the answer to which only the person whose identity is being questioned knows. If it is reported that a relative has been taken to a hospital or police station, then you need to check with those who are in touch which department the victim is in.
You can recognize the scammers' phone number by the fact that it is too suspicious and is not included in the phone contacts. After congratulating you on winning the lottery or winning a prize, you need to contact the company on behalf of which they were represented after a call: they will tell you whether any promotion was carried out on behalf of the company or not.
If the fraud was carried out using an SMS to a phone or a call, then it is possible to “punch” the phone in a search engine. Often, previous victims of scammers write reviews of the numbers they suffered as a result of contact. You can check your phone for fraud as soon as you have free access to the Internet. You should never provide your card number, CVV code, or SMS codes over the phone. If you forgot your card in a public place, block it.
Do not provide your real phone number or pay with your main card on little-known sites. Don't panic if they write to you about blocking your account. Call the bank using the number on the website or on the card.
Act one: invisible transfer and stolen passport data
The story began in a trivial way: with a call to a mobile phone. The caller, clearly working according to a script, introduced herself as an employee of a well-known bank (let it be “Bank A”) and said that they had carried out an operation on my account - they transferred 8,000 rubles to a certain N. I could have hung up immediately, but the “employee” didn’t hear anything from me didn’t demand it, and the number didn’t look suspicious. I continued the conversation and found out that my personal account had allegedly been compromised and my passport data had gone to scammers.
I checked the transactions on the application - there were no transfers. The girl had a ready answer to this: the operation will not be visible in the application, because it was made from a personal account, not from a card, and the personal account is the same for all products in the bank.
In the end, I talked with her for about 20 minutes, and during this time I did not have any suspicions: they never asked for personal data and passwords, and did not specify the CVV. But they convincingly told me how they would check the bank branch where I recently went, and convinced me that they would provide insurance for the amount of the balance on my accounts.
Together we “drafted an appeal” about the leak of passport data. This is where the most interesting part begins: the caller warned that she needs to inform other banks where I have accounts, because the passport information is the same for everyone. I honestly named two more banks whose services I use.
What to do if you find yourself a victim of telephone fraud
If, nevertheless, the data or money ends up in the hands of fraudsters, it is necessary to contact law enforcement agencies and file a statement with the police department or prosecutor's office. It must be drawn up by the victim or his legal representative (in this case, you will have to submit a document that will contain all the information about when and under what circumstances, as well as on what basis the authority to submit the application was delegated). Such a statement must indicate when the crime was committed, who exactly committed it and under what circumstances.
Along with the application, you must provide evidence, as well as identify all witnesses. To do this, you should not initially delete messages and contacts of scammers. In addition, if the applicant is sure that he is not the only victim from the actions of specific attackers, it is also necessary to indicate who else may suffer (or indicate that the circle of victims may be wide or completely unlimited).
Law enforcement officials who received the application must conduct an investigation within ten days and make a decision to initiate a criminal case. If a case has been initiated, the person who committed the fraud has been identified, all investigative actions have been carried out, the materials are submitted to the court, where the applicant must confirm all the information contained in the application in order to defend his position.
You can directly go to court with a statement of claim to hold you accountable for fraud only if other law enforcement agencies refused to accept the application for consideration or to initiate a criminal case without finding corpus delicti in the application.
Telephone scam is considered a crime and falls under Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (fraud). For a citizen who single-handedly commits telephone fraud, articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation provide for punishment by a fine, correctional labor, or, depending on the scale of the crime committed and the damage caused, an actual prison term of up to two years. For a group of fraudsters, the amount of fines and sentences are, accordingly, significantly higher.
Unfinished crime
If the subscriber ignores the attacker’s demands, telephone fraud is considered unfinished and is classified as preparation for a crime. In such cases, liability is provided only for preparation for grave and especially grave crimes (Article 30 of the Criminal Code). Their qualifying features:
- the amount extorted exceeds 250,000 rubles;
- the subject of the crime is a residential premises;
- the attackers acted as part of an organized group;
- preparation was carried out using official position.
The punishment for preparation cannot exceed half the maximum term (fine) provided for the completed crime. You can find out more about attempted fraud in this article https://lexconsult.online/7115-pokushenie-na-moshennichestvo-stati-uk-rf-stadii-mery-nakazaniya
Administrative punishment
Fraud is qualified under Art. 7.27 of the Code of Administrative Offenses on “Petty theft”, if:
- There are no aggravating circumstances.
- The assigned amount does not exceed 2500 rubles.
Art. 7.27 of the Code of Administrative Offenses contains two paragraphs.
Clause 1 If the stolen amount does not exceed 1000 rubles, the punishment will be:
- a fine in the amount of 1000 to 5000 rubles;
- arrest, the maximum period of which is 15 days;
- compulsory labor for no more than 50 hours.
Clause 2 If the amount of appropriated funds is more than 1000 rubles, but does not exceed 2500 rubles, the following is assigned:
- a fine in the amount of 3,000 to 12,500 rubles;
- imprisonment for a period of 10 to 15 days;
- compulsory work for up to 120 hours.
How to avoid falling for the tricks of telephone scammers - see the video below:
Problems with a bank card (account)
The most primitive telephone scams involving bank cards or accounts are designed to exploit a person’s fear of losing their savings and begin in much the same way: an SMS from the “bank” is sent to the phone, or scammers call, introducing themselves as its employees. The information can be the most unpleasant, for example, that a bank card is blocked or there is a loan debt. In the best case, to clarify the situation, the owner of the phone is asked to call the “bank” operator. Those who call back after this end up on a paid number and lose a large amount from their mobile phone account.
Much worse consequences occur if, at the request of the “bank,” the phone owner tells the scammers the card number and its PIN code, the password for the “Personal Account” of the bank’s Internet version, personal data and other information that should be kept secret. In such a situation, money from the bank account of the defrauded subscriber actually disappears without a trace.
Provisions of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation
The best defense against a scammer is awareness. Knowing about criminal schemes, a citizen will quickly recognize that something is wrong and stop the conversation. However, hanging up is not the best way out of the situation. In this way, the potential victim will avoid problems, but the fraudster will remain unpunished, and, accordingly, will be able to deceive other people or develop a new plan to defraud honest citizens of money.
Therefore, many residents of our country are thinking about how to bring telephone scammers to justice. The Criminal Code of the Russian Federation has Article 159, which provides punishment for fraud. Thus, having committed the theft of someone else's property by deception or breach of trust, the criminal can receive a substantial fine or even a prison sentence.
Let's look at a typical example of a breach of trust. The attacker calls elderly people, posing as a police officer. He goes on to say that the victim's son or grandson has committed some kind of offense and that he faces serious punishment. But the question can be solved quickly, what is the money for? Since the call is made in the middle of the night, the victim is caught by surprise. Typically, an elderly woman or man transfers money to the attacker's account.
For such actions, a telephone swindler may face up to 5 years in prison. Moreover, most often a crime is committed by a group of people, which is a qualifying feature and therefore contributes to tougher punishment.
If the actions of the attackers resulted in large damage (more than 250 thousand rubles), then the term of imprisonment can be up to 6 years. In case of fraud on an especially large scale (more than a million rubles), the offender can receive up to 10 years in prison.
