According to the Central Bank, in 2022, fraudsters made 773 thousand transactions without the client’s consent. The amount of damage caused to citizens amounted to 9.7 billion rubles. According to the regulator’s statistics, the share of funds returned to bank clients is 11.3% or 1.1 billion rubles of the total volume of fraudulent transactions.
Photo: Bank of Russia / Screenshot from the “Review of transactions carried out without the consent of clients of financial organizations for 2022”
As reported by the press service of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the Nizhny Novgorod Region, for the period January - July 2022, the following was recorded in the region:
- 2901 crimes committed using IT technologies;
- 1,454 crimes involving thefts from bank accounts;
- 17 criminal cases have been initiated on the facts of crimes that have formal signs of the activity of financial pyramids.
The editors of BANKNN.RU talked with an expert and collected information about cases of fraud in the Nizhny Novgorod region.
Why do we fall into the traps of scammers?
Ecaterina Vasca answered this question.
- Doctor of Psychological Sciences, Professor,
- Chief Researcher of the Russian Federal Center for Forensic Science under the Ministry of Justice of Russia (RFTSSE under the Ministry of Justice of Russia),
- chief expert of the Moscow Research Center under the Moscow Government,
- Head of the Center for Legal Psychology in Moscow,
- Professor of the Department of Criminal Law and Process of the National Research Nizhny Novgorod State University. N.I. Lobachevsky (NNSU).
Victims of scammers can include people completely different in character, age, and social status: cautious and impulsive, young and mature, low-income and those living in material prosperity. A lonely and sad person or a carefree and cheerful person often has an equal chance of falling for the bait of scammers, since in addition to personal factors, situational ones are of the greatest importance in our modern reality. For a person immersed headlong in work, whose consciousness is narrowed to the subject of activity, or for a housewife, a pensioner, who is at home in a state of emotional relaxation, an unexpected situation created by a fraudster becomes stressful, the speaker said.
According to her observations, people often fall for the trick of offering money.
Fraudsters offer a person to receive money instantly without any effort, as in the famous fairy tale about Emelya on the stove. The stratification of society into rich and poor often gives rise to a feeling of envy and false justice among a certain category of citizens, so this scheme, unfortunately, works well. No matter how much the media warns, many of the future victims of scammers do not want to understand that free cheese only comes in a mousetrap,” the expert comments.
But there are promotions and offers from organizations that are not illegal actions of attackers.
Since many official commercial offers for citizens are made by real companies, banks, and government organizations, it can be difficult for the average person to distinguish them from fraudulent ones. Attackers often act under the guise of government agencies, so you need to remember: if the state wants to offer you something, like now payments of 10 thousand rubles (a one-time payment to pensioners of 10 thousand rubles, proposed by the President of the Russian Federation - editor's note), this the information will be available and known to everyone, it will be discussed on federal channels. You must be extremely attentive and critical when you are presented with supposedly “confidential information” or made a “special offer”; this is a kind of litmus test, an indicator that reveals a fraudster,” emphasized Ecaterina Vasca.
What are the fraudster and his victim like?
The appearance of a fraudster may hardly be repulsive; rather, he will be an attractive, pleasant person to communicate with, who knows how to “ingratiate” himself into trust and play on human feelings. Often, attackers exploit base human qualities - the passion for easy money, greed or the desire of the victim to deceive someone, although sometimes they play on kindness, caring for the weak, love for one’s neighbor, and the like. Judging by this, almost no one is guaranteed that they will never be deceived.
Previously, scammers were the elite of the criminal world, since these were usually smart, educated people who were well versed in psychology. Now, with the access to the Internet and mobile communications to a larger number of the population, scammers do not even need to be good actors.
The resourcefulness and ingenuity of fraud have no limits. As soon as one type of working deception scheme becomes known to most people, a new form is invented or the existing one is modified, and again the money of naive citizens flows into other people's pockets in a trickle.
For example, the field of communications has long been saturated with fraud: not everyone will ignore a request to transfer some money to a sick child or call a loved one, allegedly receiving an SMS from him saying that “a disaster has occurred and money is needed urgently.” This type of deception is attractive to unscrupulous citizens because it is very difficult, and sometimes even impossible, for the victim to find out who the attacker is, because there was no conversation or personal contact between them. And getting the money back is almost impossible. Therefore, these forms of fraud are widespread and have been operating for years.
In addition to high-tech modern forms of deception, traditional ones - thimble-telling and card cheating - have not outlived their usefulness. And, oddly enough, they bring a steady income to their adherents.
The most popular types of fraud
Phone scam
The attacker introduces himself as a bank employee and talks about transferring money from a card or account. The fraudster communicates in a relaxed manner or, conversely, strictly. He can unleash a torrent of information on the victim. The person does not have time to process a large amount of data, gets lost and does what the scammer demands. This trick, according to our expert, is called “intentional obscurity of speech.”
I often get asked questions: “Are these specially trained people?”, “Is this NLP?”, “Are these some complex technologies?” I really want to answer: “Yes, of course.” But no. These are ordinary people who do not always speak well, and many of them are also in prison. They work using a primitive text - a script, an algorithm of actions with a list of possible responses from a potential victim. Fraudsters read out phrases that can influence a person in a certain situation. We must not forget that there are “born swindlers” who have natural intuition, developed communication skills, who know how to manipulate people and involve them in fraudulent schemes,” explained the doctor of psychological sciences.
An attacker calls on behalf of a loved one. Most often, in this case, the victim is told that this loved one has committed a crime and they need money to help him. Photo: BANKNN.RU
Fraudsters call mothers, say that their son had an accident, used drugs, and they take him to the police. At the same time, the “son’s” voice is completely different, and his own child has never been seen with drugs. However, the mother, despite this, transfers money. Why? By suddenly presenting her with the most psychotraumatic information that is most terrible for her, scammers use the maternal instinct. The version of the danger for a loved one can look so non-standard and catastrophic that critical thinking “turns off”, including a mechanism of action like “there is a danger - you need urgent help.” The way out of such situations is to interrupt the conversation with the scammer and urgently call the relative he is talking about. If for some reason this is not possible, do not be alone! Call other relatives, acquaintances, go to your neighbors. The main thing in this situation is not to be alone with these thoughts and fears for your loved one,” the speaker commented.
The attacker says that he needs to deliver a package to the victim and asks for personal information.
According to Ecaterina Vasca, there are people who cannot hang up out of politeness:
If this is about you, consider that you did not hang up, but simply lost the connection. The same thing happens and there is no need for remorse. And if you think logically, it turns out that you are simply being misled in order to be used later. What kind of politeness are we talking about?!
Internet fraud
You buy a product online.
The scammer asks for an advance payment, and after receiving the money, he stops communicating. In the worst case scenario, victims may be charged more money from their card than originally stated. They purchase goods from you. When the victim of fraud is the seller, the attacker usually requests card details for payment for the goods (including the secret code of the bank card), home address and other personal information. Both telephone and Internet fraud schemes are designed to obtain data. Any personal information gives attackers an advantage, so it should never be disclosed. The exception is when you are completely confident in the result.
The algorithm for the actions of a person who is called or written by scammers is to interrupt communication as early as possible. There is no other way out,” the expert emphasized.
Photo: BANKNN.RU
Fraud in the apartment
Attackers come to citizens' homes under the guise of anyone: from utility workers to doctors and couriers. You can check for yourself whether this person is really who he says he is. Without opening the door, you need to ask him to name the company/service that referred him and call there. According to our speaker, if they tell you that no checks were planned, the scammer will get scared and leave, because your next call may be to the police.
Popular questions and answers
What are the penalties for telephone fraud?
Telephone fraud falls under Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Depending on the severity and circumstances of the crime, it may be subject to a fine of up to 500,000 rubles, forced, compulsory or correctional labor, or imprisonment for up to ten years with or without a fine.
How realistic is it for a fraud victim to receive compensation?
Bringing a telephone scammer to justice is quite difficult. Experienced attackers carefully cover their tracks - they replace numbers, register SIM cards with other people's passport data, and use software to hide their location. Many scammers work from prisons or other countries. In this case, it becomes even more difficult to reach them and bring them to justice.
However, you should not give up and think that justice cannot be achieved. Each submitted application will be taken into account by law enforcement agencies in subsequent cases of fraud. The more victims contact the police, the higher the likelihood that the attacker will be found and punished.
How to protect older people from telephone scammers?
Elderly people often suffer from fraudulent calls. Attackers take advantage of their gullibility and ignorance of the nuances of the work of banks or other organizations. To protect your loved ones from suspicious calls, remind them of the basic safety rules:
- Do not tell anyone the code on the back of the card, codes from SMS, or Internet banking login information;
- To transfer money, use only official services of banks, payment systems and trading platforms;
- Do not call back numbers you don’t know, even if you received a call that was immediately dropped;
- Call banks and government agencies only using their official numbers;
- Do not click on suspicious links sent by callers;
- If you received a call supposedly from the bank and were informed about blocking or other problems with the card, hang up the call and call the bank back yourself;
- If you are offered to receive any payment, do not agree to it immediately, but look for information about it in other sources;
- If you have lost your card or told a suspicious person its number, block it immediately and request reissue.
In general, be vigilant and avoid becoming victims of telephone scammers.
Bank fraud
When bank scammers call you, they usually say:
- The transfer from your card has been completed;
- There is an urgent need to block the account;
- Fraudsters gained access to it;
- They offer to cancel the account and transfer it to another bank, since yours is closing.
“Our citizens need to remember that banks block all fraudulent transactions made with a client’s account on their own without calling the client. Therefore, when they call you from the bank and start telling you that something has happened to your account, it is obvious that they are scammers,” explained Ecaterina Vasca.
Financial pyramids
The Central Bank of the Russian Federation announced the boom of financial pyramids in the first quarter of 2022. According to the regulator, during this period their number increased from 58 to 85 units.
The history of financial pyramids began in the 17th century with the British South Sea Company. In Russia, the most famous representative of this scheme is MMM, created by Sergei Mavrodi in 1989.
In 2022, another striking example happened - Finiko. This financial pyramid collapsed last summer. According to law enforcement data, as of August 2022, almost 700 defrauded investors from all over Russia contacted the police.
People continue to invest money in financial pyramids because they believe in a miracle and are waiting for it. We want our money tree to grow like Pinocchio’s, we are looking for a magic pill that will solve all our problems. And sometimes we are looking for a person - this is shifting responsibility. We need everything to be decided for us, and we already get the result. But only the organizer can make money on a financial pyramid, the expert believes.
According to the press service of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the Nizhny Novgorod Region, among 17 crimes with signs of financial pyramids, a criminal case was opened under Part 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (fraud). LLC representatives attracted funds from citizens under the pretext of drawing up loan agreements. The amount of damage caused amounted to more than 1 million rubles.
If telephone scammers can be primitive individuals, then the creators of financial pyramids are manipulators who themselves have the skills of psychological influence on the masses, on specific individuals, or hire people for this. They use all methods of influence, including mental violence. They drag people into pyramids using well-known psychological mechanisms like sects. And people follow the most primitive manipulators. Because potential victims want to go. Supply appears when there is demand,” the speaker noted.
Fighting Fraud
There are specialized anti-fraud organizations. In the EU, this is handled by the European Anti-Fraud Office, OLAF.
The fight against fraud in the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs is carried out mainly by employees of the departments for combating economic crimes of the Internal Affairs Directorate. Some police departments also have specialized anti-fraud departments.
In November 2013, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin proposed criminalizing the unlawful use of someone else's social card of a Muscovite for travel on public transport as a criminal offense of fraud.
Uncommon fraud cases
- In April 2022, residents of the Nizhny Novgorod region suffered from a phishing site for a popular pizzeria. After entering bank card details when ordering food, extra debits began to be made from citizens’ accounts. Fraudsters stole 450 thousand rubles from Nizhny Novgorod residents on pizza orders.
- In the summer, a resident of Kstovo became a victim of criminals when choosing a tourist package. She followed the link from an SMS message received from a fake agency employee. According to the press service of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the region, the scammers stole 48 thousand rubles from her.
Photo: BANKNN.RU
There are two more fraudulent schemes, according to which, according to the press service of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the Nizhny Novgorod Region, for January - July 2022, the regional police department did not receive any complaints about fraud. In other regions people suffered from them.
- Issuing a loan without notifying the client
The citizen is credited with a sum of money, and a few days later they call and say that it was a loan from a microfinance organization (MFO).
A friend of mine had a similar case. A person wanted to apply for a loan, went to the company’s website, and left contact information. After some time, 1000 rubles were credited to his account. After another five days, calls and notifications began that he already owed 1,500 rubles, then 2,000, our reader said.
One of the Nizhny Novgorod microfinance organizations commented: “Not a single conscientious company would do this.”
- Lottery Fraud
The Stoloto press service reported that in the first half of 2022, together with Group-IB, 7,460 fraudulent resources disguised as Stoloto state lotteries were blocked. Of these, 7,306 were fraudulent websites, 25 mobile applications, 2 email addresses that sent phishing emails, and 127 fake accounts and groups on social networks.
The more we observe the transition to online, the more sophisticated the actions of scammers become,” noted Ekaterina Tuton, Deputy General Director for Sustainable Development of the S8 Capital holding, which includes Stoloto.
How to recognize fraud
Some scammers act spontaneously. Others are guided by psychology. They know exactly how to scare a person and force him to part with his money. Since women are guided by emotions, they are usually victims. But recognizing a scammer is sometimes difficult even for the most cautious person. The fact is that they act confidently, clearly and according to a special scenario.
What signs can you use to identify a fraudster?
- Firstly, they always ask for full or partial payment in advance.
- Secondly, they insist that the person act immediately.
- Thirdly, for a real meeting, they only offer payment in cash.
- You can also become the lucky owner of a super prize or an inheritance from a distant relative. For example, from a fourth cousin from Chicago who has millions of dollars in his account.
- If we talk about fraud with bank cards using a telephone, then they will try to put psychological pressure on you. Take your time and just calmly check the information. Even if you were told that the account was blocked or an erroneous transaction occurred. Remember: scammers are just waiting for you to panic.
How to check a website or online store for fraud online and for free
Fraudsters make phishing sites that look very similar to the real thing. Usually these are banking or payment projects. There are also one-page sites that are called landing pages. Here they beautifully describe the product, give a huge discount on it, but there is no information about the seller himself. Or she's made up. But sometimes scammers create full-fledged online stores that are almost impossible to distinguish from real ones.
Checking using services
There are special services on the Internet that allow you to conduct online fraud checks on any website. These include the projects service.loxotrona.net or antilohotron.ru, although there are others. They are free and simple. To check, you need to enter the site address. If it is in the database, the service will show information about it. This is especially useful when you need to find out about an online store.
You can find out instantly about sites that are already on the black or white lists. The service will show them immediately after verification. But if the address is not in the database, you can contact the moderators. They will independently check the site and report their decision. This usually takes about a day, but it all depends on how busy it is.
Self check
Specialized services have an extensive base. But even despite this, they may miss some sites. For example, if no one has complained about them yet. Therefore, it is important to be able to distinguish fraudulent sites from regular ones yourself. First, you should find out the age of the domain. This is the site name. This can be done on any whois service. It also contains other publicly available information. For example, the name of the site owner and his data, as well as how old this resource is.
The archive.org service will help you view the history to check the site for fraud for free. And just use common sense. Even if liquidated, the store will not sell branded items at a 95% discount. Well, scammers don’t provide technical support either, so it’s unlikely that you can contact them via feedback or in a group on social networks. And even if the sites have contacts, you can check them too. Read about this in the next section.
How to check a phone number for fraud online and for free
You won’t be able to check your phone number on your own; you’ll have to turn to services for help. By the way, scammers do not always call and immediately begin to lure you into their tricks. It also happens that they simply hang up when they hear “hello”. Even one word allows them to find out their gender and sometimes their approximate age. The easiest way is to check the number for monetary fraud through the neberitrubku.ru service.
Of course, this is not the only service. There are others. For example, zvonili.com. Sometimes it helps to simply enter the number in the search term on Google or Yandex. And for greater security, you can download the application. There are quite a lot of them. For example, Who Calls from Kaspersky. This application will block calls from scammers on its own. You don't even have to do anything. Another app is called NumBuster. It detects the phone number and checks it against the database before you pick up the phone.
Memo:
- You cannot come into contact with scammers: neither by phone, nor on the Internet, nor in person;
- There is only one algorithm: interrupt the conversation and hang up;
- The creators of financial pyramids are manipulators;
- Do not give personal information to strangers;
- Banks block fraudulent transactions on their own without calling the client;
- If a bank calls you, hang up and call them back yourself;
- Only the organizer can receive money in a financial pyramid;
- Anyone can fall into a scammer's trap;
- Free cheese only comes in a mousetrap;
- Telephone scammers are ordinary people uttering prepared texts.
Types of Fraud
- Carding
- Doll (fraud)
- Maternity capital fraud
- Fraud using dating services
- Thimbles (game)
- Homework scam
- Body kit
- A car set-up is a specially staged car accident with the imitation of the fault of another driver in order to receive compensation.
- Calculation
- Measurement
- False advice notes
- Financial Pyramide
- Sale of medical products that cure incurable diseases
- "High-rise building on six hundred square meters"
Mobile fraud
- Fraud
- "A call from a close relative"
- Mobile fraud
Internet fraud
- Vishing
- Phishing
- Click fraud
- Farming
- Dating scams
- "Nigerian Letters"
- Fraudulent online stores
Fraud with plastic cards
Fraudulent schemes using plastic cards based on illegal debiting of funds from accounts were identified and analyzed.
