Fraud on the Internet - where to turn and how to protect yourself

Money transfer fraud is widespread and continues to grow. There are a huge number of methods and tricks. Unfortunately, an impressive portion of such crimes remain unsolved due to various circumstances, but this is not a reason to give up, panic or do nothing - you have the right to try to get your money back by any legal method.

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Online fraud: types

There are many ways to deceive people over the Internet.
The ingenuity of scammers knows no bounds; new techniques are constantly appearing aimed at luring money out of Internet users. It is impossible to describe all types of fraud, so below is general information about methods of deception, grouped according to similar characteristics. Existing types of fraud on the Internet can be divided into 2 large groups:

Software. Money is written off from the user using special means: viruses, fake sites, etc.
Psychological. The basis for fraud is the human factor: users independently transfer money to the accounts of criminals, believing in the story they set out.

○ What to do if you become a victim of scammers on the Internet?

In accordance with Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, fraud is the theft of property or obtaining the right to someone else’s property by deception. It does not matter how exactly such an illegal act was committed. This means that if your money or other valuables are stolen via the Internet, it is the same criminal offense as if committed in real life.

However, despite the same characteristics and elements of the act, it is more difficult to bring virtual fraudsters to justice. This is due to the lack of personal contact and sufficient information about the individual. However, it is still possible to find online thieves and bring them to justice if you act correctly.

Fraud using software tools

Examples of online fraud carried out using various software include:

Phishing. A message is sent to your email/phone asking you to confirm your password to use a bank card or log into your account on a website. Fraudsters report that if you refuse to provide such information, access to the card or resource will be limited. The user submits the required data, after which the fraudsters have the opportunity to unlimitedly use the card or account in their own interests.
Debiting funds via SMS. To complete registration on the site or gain access to download a file, the user is asked to go through an identification procedure confirming that he is not a bot (a program that automatically generates new accounts or continuously downloads files from the server). To do this, the site owners suggest using a mobile phone. An SMS message with an access code to the system is sent to the number specified by the user. It must be entered into the appropriate field on the page that opens. The following are several possible scenarios:

All funds on it are debited from the user's account;
funds are debited not only from the account, but also from bank cards linked to the phone number;
a subscription to paid services is automatically formed, as a result of which the user’s phone balance is regularly reduced by a certain amount.

Fake sites. Instead of the official website of a bank or online store, the virus program transfers the user to a fake website that has a similar design and differs by one or more letters/numbers in the domain name. The user, unaware of the substitution, places an order on it, pays for it, and the money goes to the fraudster’s account. The payer, of course, will not wait for his purchase.

Psychological Fraud

The following methods of online fraud fall into this category:

Imaginary charity. Treatment of seriously ill children, assistance to fire victims, restoration of churches and shelters, etc. - social networks are full of requests for help in such situations. Despite all the moral nuances of holding such collections, scammers often create fake pages using other people’s photographs and documents confirming the fact of their need for money. To protect yourself from this type of deception, you should transfer money only through large charitable foundations or, if the details of a private person are used for collection, require the presentation of original documents (or scanned copies with the id of the group or page through which the collection is made).
Selling a non-existent product or a product that does not have the stated characteristics. The buyer, seeing an attractive price, seeks to take advantage of the offer and transfers money to the online store or private seller. At best, he will receive products that do not correspond to the order, and at worst, he will be left without money and without a package.
Selling online courses. With the development of digital technologies, it has become easier to obtain the necessary knowledge: you don’t need to go to the library for a specific book, just download an electronic textbook or video lesson. There are decent video courses, the creators of which really understand the subject and share their knowledge with other people. However, there is a lot of various garbage on the Internet, purchasing which users waste their money. “How to make a million without any effort”, “How to build muscles in 2 days” are vivid examples of what courses you don’t need to buy.

Contacting law enforcement agencies

You should contact the police in the following cases:

immediately after contacting the bank - for reliability;
if more than 1-2 days have passed since the transfer;
if the bank refuses to return your money.

Of course, you will need to complain not to the bank - it is very difficult to return money that the user transferred of his own free will (even after being deceived). By refusing you in this case, the bank will not violate your rights.

Feel free to contact the police regarding fraud:

Write a statement, describe the problem in detail, indicating all the circumstances and details, with information about the date, amount, information about the scammers known to you.
Attach a document that will confirm that you have already contacted the bank and outlined your problem.
Add any other documentation that is relevant to the case. For example, a receipt that reflects the transfer, bank statements, printouts of correspondence or the contents of messages, etc.
Receive a document stating that your application has been accepted.

On average, the investigation of such cases lasts up to two months.

Contacting the police will be more productive. Law enforcement agencies have the right to request information about persons to whose cards certain funds were transferred. This can identify the scammers.

How events can develop further:

The owner of the card to which you transferred the money will be interviewed.
Representatives of the investigation will analyze what evidence is available and whether it is sufficient to constitute a crime.
If there are sufficient grounds, the fraudster will be charged.
If not, known information about this person will allow you to file a civil lawsuit (regardless of the decision of the investigators).

It happens that the police refuse to accept your statement or do not react to it in any way. In this situation, contact the prosecutor's office and file a complaint with a request to oblige the department employees to start working. Even if there is really little basis for accusations at this stage, it is important for you to establish the identity of the card owner.

Checking an online store for fraud

To avoid falling for scammers, you should choose only trusted online stores and not pay in advance for orders made through social networks or classifieds sites.

If the product is extremely necessary or the price is very attractive, you should check the online store for fraud before placing an order. To do this you can:

Find out the domain registration date. If the site was created recently (a week or even a month ago), the likelihood that it is being used by scammers is extremely high.
Read reviews on forums or specialized review sites. If there are no such reviews or they are negative, you should refuse the purchase. The abundance of the same type of enthusiastic responses should also alert you - most likely, they are custom-made and do not correspond to reality.
Really evaluate the store's offer. Liquidation of a branded collection at a 90% discount from the initial cost, sale of confiscated goods, or sale of flagship models of electronic equipment at half price is most likely just a bait from scammers.

Internet fraud - how to get your money back

Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to recover money lost as a result of fraudulent activities on the Internet. Most often, scammers have minimal computer and legal literacy skills and accept money not to a bank card, but to an account that does not require identification confirmation (for example, to a wallet opened in the Payeer system), which complicates the procedure for finding them.

It will also not be possible to contact the scammer on your own and appeal to his conscience. Usually the telephone numbers indicated in the advertisements do not answer, and the copies of documents and information about the registration address provided are fake.

Contacting law enforcement agencies may give you a slim chance of getting your money back. How to do this is described below.

Self-prevention

Some methods of independently preventing the transfer of money to scammers are relevant in the following cases:

when you downloaded the virus;
if you entered payment information using unfamiliar links;
transferred money from your card or another payment resource to a fraudster;
less than 24 hours have passed since the transfer (maximum two days).

The general order is:

Download an antivirus program or run a cleaner on the installed one to remove the virus and stop its action.
Change passwords on all resources that are related to your funds - Yandex.Money, Qiwi and other wallets, and so on.
Contact technical support at payment resources, warn about possible transactions and express your desire to cancel them if they have already been completed.
In the same way, warn all your banks about the incident.
Remove all information about your data from all social networks, if it is there.

Support will tell you whether any operations have been performed. In many cases, if you request help within 24 hours, you may receive a refund.

Where to report online fraud

Despite the fact that the media and popular electronic resources constantly publish information about existing methods of deceiving the population, law enforcement agencies daily record hundreds of cases of dishonest actions against consumers of information. Where to turn in case of Internet fraud if you have encountered deception on the Internet?

First of all, the victim must submit a statement to the police department located at his place of residence. A separate division, the “K” department, has the authority to handle complaints regarding Internet fraud.

The application must indicate:

Full name, passport details, registration address, contact phone number of the applicant;
description of the situation that occurred: date, time, place where the fraudulent actions were committed, as well as the essence of the actions that led to the deception of the victim;
date of application and signature of the applicant.

You can submit your application either in person or online. To do this, you need to follow the link https://mvd.ru/request_main and send the document (you can attach additional evidence of fraud to it: screenshots of pages, Internet banking receipts, etc.).

Contacting the bank

Let's say the money has already been debited from your card. In this case, first of all you need to try to resolve the issue with the bank.

First, you should call the hotline, describe your situation and ask to cancel the transfer (or temporarily suspend any actions from your card).

Then your order of actions should be like this:

Go to the nearest branch of your bank and apply for a chargeback there. In the application, you will need to describe the problem in detail, indicate your account or card number, the date of the incident - generally speaking, justify the need for a refund.
Provide a receipt that confirms payment.
Register the application and keep a copy of it for yourself.
Wait until the bank informs you of its decision - on average, such applications are considered within a month.

Punishment for online fraud

Responsibility for fraud (including fraud on the Internet) is provided for in Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The sanction of this article establishes the following types of punishment:

a fine of up to 120 thousand rubles;
a fine in the amount of the salary or other income of the convicted person received by him for a period not exceeding one year;
compulsory work lasting up to 360 hours;
correctional labor for up to 1 year;
restriction of freedom/forced labor for up to 2 years;
arrest for up to 4 months;
imprisonment for up to 2 years.

Thus, the punishment for fraud on the Internet is not severe enough, even taking into account the legislator’s differentiated approach to its possible types.

Why transfer money using someone else's cards?

The development of online commerce has led to the flourishing of fraudulent schemes related to this activity. Various schemes are used for illegal enrichment: creating store pages on social networks, through fly-by-night websites or through trading platforms. Fraudsters offer products at a lower price or with more advantageous consumer properties.

In all cases, the transaction for the sale of goods requires prepayment. Transfer of money is expected to an anonymous bank card.

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Note!
To protect yourself from fraudsters, before making a payment, you must request full details of the account where the payment is intended, including the name and surname of the card holder.

If the seller insists on transferring to a card, you should request his data: full name and a photocopy of the passport page with photo. If you refuse to provide any information, you are faced with a fraudster.

Results

So, fraud on the Internet can be based on the use of special software tools that can withdraw funds from user accounts, or it can consist of a set of psychological techniques aimed at misleading the user, as a result of which he independently transfers funds to the fraudster. It is very difficult to recover money lost as a result of fraudulent activities. This can only be done if the criminals are found by law enforcement agencies and brought to justice.

See also: “Fraud using payment bank cards.”
You can find more complete information on the topic in ConsultantPlus. Free trial access to the system for 2 days.

What to do if money is transferred

If, having already made a transfer of funds, you realize that you have become a victim of a fraudster, for example, the product was not delivered or its quality is far from promised, you should act immediately. There is a chance to return money transferred to scammers if you organize your actions correctly.

One option for getting your money back is to force the scammer to voluntarily return the money. Information about unscrupulous sellers can be found on the Internet, on thematic forums - with their help you can find other victims and even find out the details of the scammer. Fearing lawsuits, the fraudster can return the transferred money himself.