VKontakte scammers. How to complain, is it possible to punish them and return the money if they were deceived?

There is a lot of information about scammers on the Internet. The concepts of “scam” and “pinocchio” appeared. The latter refers to people who are simply scammed out of money. There are more and more scam options. Another way to deceive the common man has become fraud on VKontakte, which makes any category of users of this social network vulnerable.

How and where to complain about scammers?

There are many scammers using VKontakte.
The VK administration does not regulate the activities of such groups and users and does not check the goods or services that are sold through the social network. The administration’s position is this: they provide a platform, a means of communication, but they do not have the opportunity to verify the transfer of money and the fact of transfer of goods or provision of services. VKontakte is not a store. They don't monitor whether a group (or user) is committing fraud. You yourself, voluntarily, decide to transfer money to someone. If a problem arises (money was transferred - the full amount or an advance payment, but the goods were not sent, the service was not provided, you were deceived and added to the black list), this needs to be dealt with through the police, court or Rospotrebnadzor. You can do this via the Internet:

• Reception of requests from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation
• Receiving applications to Rospotrebnadzor

Only they have the authority to investigate such cases. At an official request from law enforcement agencies or by a court decision, VKontakte will provide them with all possible assistance in finding scammers and may block the scammer’s group or page.

To send a complaint to a page, VK has a standard “Complain” function. In this case, you must indicate the reason for the complaint: “Fraud.” However, remember that VKontakte is not a law enforcement agency, and blocking a page will not stop a criminal. The mere fact of filing a complaint or complaints does not mean that this page will be blocked. When faced with fraud, you need to not only complain about the page, but also file a complaint with the police. VK will not do this for you. And of course, VK will not look for the scammer and return your money.

How many times do you need to complain?

Some VK users mistakenly think that the more complaints about the VK group are received, the faster the site administration will block it.

In fact, even one complaint is enough for it to be blocked. The number of hits doesn't matter.

The main thing is that the group that the user is complaining about actually violates the site rules.

The administration does not block a group just like that, they need evidence of the illegality of the actions of users or group administrators, the complaint must be justified, reasoned, preferably with photo or video evidence.

Read more: is it possible to find a fraudster and punish him, return the money?

Of course, you want the fraudster to be found as quickly as possible and punished, as well as to return your money. But let's see if the VC administration can do anything.

When you find a product on VK, you buy it in the same way as if you bought it through an ad. You yourself negotiate with the seller about payment and delivery and you yourself must understand that he may turn out to be a fraudster. This is not an online store, but a social network where any user can write anything, including a message about the sale of a product. No one controls such a seller, and he usually does not give you any documents confirming payment and guaranteeing the quality of the goods.

Let’s imagine: VK receives a complaint in which a person asks to block another person’s page on the grounds that he is a fraudster. Let's say VK does this. How will this stop the scammer? He will create exactly the same page in five minutes and will continue to deceive people.

See also

• They wrote to me that I won an iPhone. This is true?

The problem is that it is difficult to check whether it is a scammer or not. Of course, you know for sure that you were deceived, but why should they believe you?

Let's compare two situations:

1. You transferred the money to the seller and received the goods.
2. You transferred money and received nothing.

Inside VK there is no information about the movement of money or goods. Therefore, it is difficult to figure out who is right. What evidence do you have that you sent money? Let's say it's a screenshot from online banking, but it's easy to fake. To actually check this, you need to find out about the movement of funds through accounts in a bank or payment system. No one will give such information to the VK administration. But make sure you have a paper receipt or bank statement.

Does the seller have proof that he sent you the goods? You say: he had to send the goods by mail, let him show the receipt! However, the seller may answer that you called and he delivered the goods to you personally (or sent by courier). Remember: when you bought a product through an ad on VK and received it in person, did you sign somewhere? Thus, in both situations there is no simple and objective evidence of the honesty of both the seller and the buyer.

So, it is very difficult to verify such trading. Fraudsters take advantage of people's naivety and scam them out of hundreds a day. People themselves understand the risk, but, attracted by the low price or something else, they continue to send money to complete strangers.

Perhaps you have an idea: let VKontakte find the scammer through the police! In fact, you should contact the police yourself - this is your personal relationship with the person who deceived you. And the VK site, like any other site with advertisements, was only a means of communication. After all, if you were asked to transfer money not on the Internet, but by phone, you would not ask the telephone company to block the deceiver or find him, but would go to the police. Exactly the same here. And when you write a statement to the police, she herself will contact the VK administration and ask for the information she needs about this person.

Can VK help me return the money I sent to the scammer?

No, he can not. You sent money directly to the scammer. He simply wrote to you on VK where to send them. He could send it by mail, say it on the phone, write it on paper or on the fence. The VK administration cannot control in any way what kind of relationship you have with him. Accordingly, she cannot intervene in them either. If VK has any information about a fraudulent user, it can only be released to law enforcement agencies.

We all complained about the scammer, but he was not blocked. Why?

Because it is impossible to decide by voting whether a person is a fraudster or not. You and your friends sent a bunch of complaints, and on this basis they should block him? What if this is a conscientious person? Do you think this should be determined by the number of complaints? No, it doesn't work that way.

The number of complaints does not affect whether the page is blocked or not. Calling a person a fraud is a serious matter and is not decided by a popular vote.

The “Report” function with the “Fraud” option works well when the fraud is obvious - for example, some popular product is offered that is clearly ten times cheaper than its real price, or someone is “raffling off ten iPhones” and asks to pay for delivery (and everyone who wanted to win). In other cases, an investigation is required. As explained above, the VC does not conduct investigations. They are dealt with by law enforcement agencies. In any case, you will hardly harm a real scammer if you simply get his page or group blocked. He prepared for this and will make a new one. Or already did.

useful links

• How to contact the police about fraud
• How to return money stolen by scammers

How to write to VK technical support from a phone or application

Perhaps now I will upset someone, but you won’t be able to call support either from a mobile or a landline phone, since VK simply does not have a call center where specialists could answer your call. All my attempts to find the phone number of VKontakte LLC in directories and other Runet resources remained unsuccessful.

But you can contact a VKontakte agent through the mobile application in the same way as through the web version of the site. You need to go to the “Help” section, which is located in the main menu and click the “Write to Support” button in one of the questions. The answer can be viewed on the “My Questions” tab.

How to write to VK technical support from your phone if you don’t have access to a computer.

The instructions are practically no different from the computer version. At the very end of the menu is help (with the “?” icon). We get almost the same reference book. We select –> it didn’t help –> there are still questions.

We have the opportunity to write a message or complaint. You can view the written text on chapters. catalog page. The process looks like a correspondence, in which there is one question and one answer - this is the main difference from the PC version. The VKontakte application is also available on our website.

In the browser on a smartphone, “Help” is in the menu, third from the bottom. It differs from both the PC and the software version. There are a few fewer solutions.

Figure 6. Contact window in technical. VKontakte support via phone

What does the VKontakte administration say about scammers?

Here is the official position of the VKontakte administration, which can be found in the help system:

I was deceived, or how to deal with scammers

VKontakte is a huge platform that includes, among other things, many representative offices of retail outlets.
We provide the right to use our site, but we cannot physically verify the integrity of all merchants. So, we do not have access to payment and gaming systems, or postal items. We do not have the tools to confirm or deny the timely delivery and quality of the product. We wrote more about such situations and our position on them here. If something irreparable does happen, contact law enforcement immediately. You can write an application in person at the department at your place of residence or on the Ministry of Internal Affairs website: mvd.ru/request_main. If you do not live in Russia, you can contact the authorities at your place of residence - we have practice of participating in international affairs.

(source)

According to the link contained in this answer, the VKontakte support team writes that they are often confused with the police, and that this should not be done:

There is a group that sells, for example, handbags, requiring advance payment. Let’s omit here all my thoughts about the naivety of those who send money to a stranger on parole (we have written about this more than once before), but after being deceived by the seller, you come to us and ask us to block the scammers. Although much more often - return the money. In this case, only the police can help. We do not conduct investigations, do not block “on suspicion”, and cannot return money to you that you voluntarily gave to some person. Fraud is a crime, and only authorized persons can investigate the activities of fraudsters.

(source)

If I suffered from a scammer, will the VK administration give me his phone number and other data?

No never. But VK cooperates with law enforcement agencies and provides information upon their official request. Contact the police with what you have. The rest is their job.

Methods for checking a VKontakte page for fraud

1. Visit the object's page and view information about it. The lack of friends on the page or posts should already be alarming.
2. If any services are offered, it is worth finding out if this person has a website that confirms the activity.
3. It is worth conducting an analysis of the contacts and groups in which the suspect is a member.
4. Checking page ID and address. To do this, just copy the address bar when you are on the user’s page.
5. If you are offered to purchase goods, then it is worth finding out how long this resource has been operating. You often come across fly-by-night online stores. Do not rush to transfer money for goods, do not indicate your card number or PIN code and mobile phone number.
6. Read people's reviews. Their absence already indicates, at a minimum, that the product is not in demand.

The seller sends his passport, can you trust him?

All scammers who show you a passport are showing you NOT THEIR PASSPORT and NOT THEIR PHOTO. They stole documents and photos from ordinary social network users: either after “hacking” their pages, or lured them out under the pretext of “getting a job.” That is, documents and photos of ordinary people are used to create “sellers” pages. These innocent people themselves do not even suspect that scammers are acting on their behalf. The documents of the same person are not used for a long time, because thanks to human naivety, scammers keep creating new ones, so there is no point in compiling a list of them and distributing them.

Blackmail

Some scammers do not even hesitate to blackmail other VKontakte users. This mainly occurs through the threat to send compromising pictures to the user’s friends. For silence, the scammers demand that you send money to your card. Usually we are talking about 3-5 thousand rubles, which largely depends on the age, status and income of the victim. But, as a rule, the process takes a long time, and these thousands of rubles eventually turn into tens and hundreds of thousands.

Users who encountered this kind of deception told their stories. In most cases, the scammers do not have any compromising information. The most they can do is unprofessionally attach the face of the page owner to other photographs with compromising content. Usually photoshop is immediately visible, but you can try to expose the scammers:

1. First, clarify what kind of photos we are talking about.
2. Then check the submitted pictures using special programs that show processing by graphic editors.
3. After this, you can contact the administration of the social network with a complaint about the user, group or community from which the threats were received.

Sometimes there is no processing, but the photo shows a person who looks similar to the victim. Don’t fall for the tricks and don’t transfer money to the scammer, in most cases they just scare you.

What to do with scammers who sell counterfeits, forgeries, fakes, and replicas of VKontakte?

Advertising of counterfeit goods, in particular, counterfeit clothing and shoes, is common on VK. There are known advertisements for counterfeit shoes from Ecco, Salomon, Columbia, Timberland (usually the ad indicates a large discount, for example, 70%). Advertising links lead to sites like salomon-discount.com, about which there are many reviews of victims on the Internet. Such sites often contain the details of the organizations TorgService LLC, Online Retail LLC (Cheboksary), Millhouse LLC (Moscow).

The advertising rules do NOT prohibit sellers from posting such advertising:

The VK position on this matter is as follows:

Unfortunately, we do not regulate the activities of such groups. Likewise, we do not check the products in the stores that we stock. We provide a platform, but do not take on the functions of the police or Rospotrebnadzor.

If you were deceived in this way and sent a fake, you will have to solve the problem through law enforcement agencies, as described above.

Flea markets

There are a huge number of groups and public pages on the site that provide a platform for selling personal items as unnecessary, so-called flea markets. They were also chosen by scammers. There can be two scenarios here:

1. The scammer asks to transfer money for the goods before shipping, or an advance payment before the meeting.
2. The buyer, supposedly to transfer money, asks not only for your card number, but also for the CVV2 code (three digits on the back of the card).

In the first case, a person simply disappears after funds are transferred to his account, and in the second, if the card is not linked to the phone, attackers can carry out any transactions with the account.

To avoid getting into trouble, you should never make advance payments at flea markets, and you should also agree on delivery of goods by cash on delivery.

If criminals have taken possession of your card data, you should immediately call the bank and block it. If an advance has been transferred, you can also contact the bank to return the written-off funds. In both cases, it is necessary to write a statement to the police, and also report the incident to the group management and VK technical support.

Important! To transfer money to your account, you only need the sixteen-digit number on the front of the card.

People often want to believe in something supernatural, and many online scammers take advantage of this. The VK network is no exception; in its vastness you can find any magical services. Often, scammers use the names of well-promoted stars of television shows on this topic.

To avoid losing money, you should not apply for such services, especially online. After paying for the services of such scammers, you should immediately contact the bank, write a statement to the police and contact technical support.

Fraudulent competitions and sweepstakes

Such competitions are solely the responsibility of the administrators of the groups who conduct them and the users who participate in them. VK cannot conduct an investigation in each specific case and find out whether the drawing was conducted fairly, whether the prize was delivered to the winner, and so on.

We talked about one of the most common methods of deception used by scammers here: Won a prize (iPhone) in a competition. Is this a scam, a scam?

It is recommended simply not to participate in any dubious competitions. No one can guarantee you their honesty. Also, don’t forget that free cheese can only be found in a mousetrap.

Can they be held accountable for fraud?

Any person can be prosecuted and punished if his actions show signs of criminally unlawful acts. The elements of the crime under articles of fraud consist of the presence of deception and the intention to take possession of other people's funds. Even if you did not know and became a participant in the crime, ignorance of the law does not exempt you from responsibility. It is not easy to recognize a fraudster, so be vigilant in dubious transactions, consult with specialists about the consequences and possible risks.

Seventh scheme

Relevant for dating lovers. For example, you saw the page of a beautiful girl, went in, and there were links to third-party resources - they say, this is my other page. When you go, something like a dating site opens, and in order to chat with a girl, you need to send an SMS message. Of course, it's not free. And under the mask of a beautiful girl there may well be a bearded man hiding, but even with him it is unlikely that you will be able to communicate with him after withdrawing funds from your mobile account.

If you have been the victim of a scammer or attacker, please tell your story using the comments section - don't let scammers profit from other users!

First scheme

Recently, this scheme has become popular. Attackers gain access to a user’s account in one way or another, that is, they obtain his login and password. The attacker then starts writing messages to the user's friends on his behalf. As you understand, this is where the scam begins: the attacker writes that, for example, he urgently needs to pay for the Internet, but has no money, so he asks users to transfer funds to his card. It would seem that it is not so difficult to guess that you are being simply scammed right now, but when a friend writes to a person, vigilance is reduced and people transfer funds!

The worst thing is that the user who owns the page often doesn’t even know that his friends were simply scammed out of money in such a brazen way.

Where to go to protect your rights

A victim of fraudulent activities on the Internet, just as with ordinary theft, should report this fact to the police. Cases related to crimes in the field of information technology are investigated by a special unit within the Ministry of Internal Affairs - department “K”. It is not necessary to contact this department directly. You can submit an application to the territorial police department, which will redirect it according to jurisdiction.

However, the likelihood of getting your money back is extremely low. Even if the criminals can be caught, the money, as a rule, is in impersonal accounts in offshore companies, from where it is impossible to reclaim it.

Victims of fraud on social networks often do not contact the police for other reasons:

1. It is believed that the amount is too small to initiate a criminal case, but such cases contain many criminal episodes, and the testimony of each victim helps to create a more complete picture and detain the perpetrators.
2. It is believed that ignorance of the criminal's face makes his capture impossible. However, for crimes in virtual reality, identifying features of criminals include a website address, nickname, correspondence, email address, card or wallet number, and telephone number.

Now looking for technical support: How to find a seller on Avito by phone number

Fourth scheme

Not exactly a scam, but we’ll still tell you about this scheme. Imagine that you woke up in the morning, opened a VK page on your computer and saw unusual functionality, for example, guests of your page. This is a dream? Maybe because such functionality is not available in VK. But in reality, these could be tricks of a previously installed browser extension, including VK. Some of these plugins are capable of not only changing the appearance of the page, but also redirecting the user to the desired page (say, with viruses), including additional advertising on literally any page, downloading malicious files... You should be extremely careful when installing browser plugins.

Third scheme

Lately, such a trick has not taken place in VK, but it is still worth talking about. The idea is simple: you receive a link from some friend with a message like “look what I found.” As you can guess, the main problem is the link. When you switch, you will most likely be greeted by a Trojan or ransomware virus that will block your desktop and require you to send an expensive SMS message.

Fortunately, such types of “divorce” are rare, and besides, if you follow the link, the VKontakte system will most likely block the transition. However, if you receive such a message, think several times about whether to click on the link.

Second scheme

Users love various polls. The attackers decided to take advantage of this.

In the vastness of the RuNet or in the same VK, you can follow a link to a third-party resource (often by accident), which exactly copies VK. Here you can see the voting. To vote, you need to log in again. It would seem, what’s wrong with this? It’s simple - this is not VKontakte, it’s a completely different site that only looks like VK, but in reality it is not. Accordingly, after entering the data, it will go straight into the hands of those who own this very resource, and the data from the account can be used for various purposes, including fraud.