For several months I studied the topic of Internet fraud in order to collect the most complete list of actions that would protect me from scammers and their machinations. The result of the study was a checklist that I want to share with everyone. Its goal is to make hacking digital assets difficult and pointless.
I suggest the reader complete as many points as possible on this checklist, but I must say that this will involve some inconvenience when using a smartphone. But here everyone chooses: convenience or safety. You quickly get used to the inconveniences and they cease to be such, and as for security, hacking any of your accounts can cost a lot of money, time and nerves.
For convenience, the items are sorted by importance and divided into blocks: Mandatory, Important and Desirable. There is also a list of Digital Hygiene Rules and What to Do in an Emergency. How to perform this or that action can be easily found on the Internet, so for the sake of clarity, I present the actions themselves and short explanations. In the final part of the article I will give several real examples.
I tried to put together the most complete collection, but if you have anything to add, write in the comments.
Incoming transfer from a mysterious stranger
Have you received an unexpected transfer from a stranger? It could be a mistake, a gift from a secret admirer... or a scam. While you are unsuccessfully trying to remember who Mikhail M. is, he is already calling you and tearfully asking you to return the money - they say that he mistyped the phone number when sending it, who does not happen to you. At the same time, he asks to send the money not to the place where the transfer came from, but to another account or phone number.
The catch is this: the transfer was made from a stolen card. Its rightful owner will almost certainly complain to the bank, and after investigation, the transaction will most likely be cancelled. That is, the money will be returned to the account of the owner of the stolen card, and will simply disappear from your account. But your own translation, made voluntarily, will become the prey of scammers.
What to do if you receive a notification about a sudden transfer? Do not give in to scammers’ requests and do not send them funds. Block the sender's number and report the incident to the bank's security service. By the way, it is better not to spend the funds received - as noted above, they can be written off at any time.
Compensation for data leakage from a non-existent organization
Leaks of data from millions of users have long been a constant topic in the news. And in the last couple of years, the news has often featured multibillion-dollar fines that authorities impose on companies for massive leaks. Therefore, many users may not suspect a trick if someone promises them compensation for a possible leak of their data.
They receive such an offer from the Personal Data Protection Fund created by the American Trade Commission. It sounds solid, but in fact there is no fund or commission with such names.
All that is required to receive a payment of a couple of thousand dollars is an American social security number (SSN). There's no such thing? Not a problem, you can buy a temporary one directly on the same website - for just over $9. Of course, after such a purchase, the victim will indeed receive a notification from the bank, but not at all about the receipt of compensation.
Fake theater tickets
Buying tickets to a theater, museum or concert is much more convenient online. But searching for the right site can lead both to the official page of the organization and to a resource of resellers or scammers. And often it looks quite believable: the design is similar, the pages themselves are in the top of search results. In general, an inexperienced or rushed user may not immediately understand that the site is fake.
Moreover, if resellers really sell tickets, albeit at exorbitant prices, then the goal of real criminals is to obtain payment information from victims and write off as much money as possible. In order to definitely get to the event and not overpay, when purchasing tickets, we do not recommend clicking on banners and advertising links in the top lines of search results: look for the official page of the event or institution where it is taking place.
What do the digits of the card number mean?
Understanding the numerical values will help you in determining the identity of the criminal, his region of residence, and so on. Therefore, knowing what the numbers on your card number mean is very important. Let's look at it in order:
- The very first digit means belonging to the payment system. From “3” to “6” are the familiar Maestro, MasterCard and Visa; the number “6” can also be a sign of Chinese payment systems. In addition, pay attention to the number “3” - it is also assigned to Japanese and American cards.
- The next five digits are the bank's BIN; it is assigned to every banking organization in the world. If you look for the BIN from the fraudster’s card in search engines, you can find out which bank he took the card from.
- Everything that comes after the BIN, except for the last digit , is data about the currency of the card and its type (credit card or debit), as well as the region of issue. Only bank employees can decipher the values.
- The last digit is a check number for correct accounting and financial accounting; only bank employees need it.
There is a three-digit CVV code on the back of the card - under no circumstances disclose it to anyone! With its help, a criminal can pay with your card in online stores with absolute impunity.
It will be useful for the reader to learn about ways to check a phone number or online store for fraud.
"Official Drivers" on BlaBlaCar
Users of the BlaBlaCar service may sometimes encounter scammers who introduce themselves as “official drivers” and offer passengers to pay for the trip in advance through a certain website. The need for prepayment is explained in different ways: either by company rules, or by some kind of cashback or bonuses for passengers.
Of course, the site that offers to prepay for the trip is fraudulent. When you click on a link with a suspicious address like blablacar.host, you will first be asked to enter your personal information, and then your payment card information. And the scammer, of course, will stop responding to messages.
“Official driver”: how BlaBlaCar users are deceived
On the BlaBlaCar support website, passengers are urged not to pay for trips on third-party resources and to report drivers who require prepayment.
“Fishing” money through subscriptions
Paid online subscriptions are an equally popular scam scheme. It is used mainly by dating sites, online cinemas, loan selectors (TvoyZaym, Forenzi) and various second-rate services. The deception algorithm looks something like this:
- A person provides his confidential data while surfing the Internet, or the information is “fished out” when going to one of the phishing resources.
- After detecting a leak of money from the card, the user contacts the support service of the online service, where he is told that the subscription was issued by him personally.
In such a situation, it is very difficult for the deceived bank card owner to prove the fact that fraudsters were involved in hacking the account. Even if the organizers of the dubious resource themselves activated the subscription, they will in every possible way deny the interference of third parties. If no measures are taken, the cardholder will have to constantly pay for premium access to VIP services (for example, dating site tkmru.com), information, advertising and other services.
Deception of crypto investors
The sharp rise in cryptocurrency prices in recent years has attracted the attention of many people. For some, greed takes precedence over caution, making them ideal victims for scammers. Those, naturally, have already adapted to the new trend and have long been hunting crypto investors and cryptocurrency miners, constantly inventing new schemes.
For example, criminals send messages to Discord users about winning a large sum of tokens or about a promotion with the distribution of “helicopter money.” To pick up gifts, you just need to pay a small commission or make a deposit to register on a crypto exchange (fake, of course). And so that victims do not have doubts about the reality of what is happening, attackers create entire portals with fake news where their actions are mentioned.
Another scam option is a fraudulent offer to participate in an ICO, that is, the initial placement of a new promising currency. Having received money from inexperienced crypto investors, scammers ask them to wait three hours while the transaction is allegedly approved by the blockchain network. Naturally, the victim will not see any tokens - neither after 3 hours, nor after 30 days.
Another scheme is carried out by scammers using Lightshot, a public service for sharing screenshots. Attackers post on it supposedly accidentally taken pictures with logins and passwords of accounts on crypto exchanges and literally bait those who want to take advantage of other people’s frivolity. After logging in using the details from the screenshot, the greedy user gets into an account on a fake exchange and sees a large amount in the account. True, in order to withdraw it, you need to pay a commission... What happens then, you guessed it?
A separate type of cryptocurrency fraud is the “sale” of mining equipment that is so scarce that official suppliers no longer have it in stock. Potential victims receive an email notification that they were mentioned in a Google Doc by a well-known manufacturer of mining rigs. The file itself contains a notification about the start of sales and a link that leads to a fake, but very convincing page of the online store. Here users are asked to register, enter the delivery address and pay for the order. The scarce farm, of course, never reaches the buyer, and the seller disappears with a lot of money.
Scamming crypto traders on Discord: new hope
How to avoid falling for scams and scams on the Internet
You need to be careful. It is useful to remember that everything that advertises easy, fabulous incomes can easily be classified as a scam. Don't believe colorful advertising offers! You should not buy courses without making inquiries about the author: what he has achieved, is he capable of teaching, is he really a specialist who can be trusted.
Before choosing a site to make money, you should:
- Check his reliability - whether he is on the black list of deceivers.
- Find and re-read reviews about it.
- Ask people who have been working for a long time whether there are any unreasonable blocking of accounts or problems with withdrawing earned money.
Before authorizing on any service, you must check the correctness of its name in the address bar. At first glance, the address of the phishing site is very similar; only one letter may be changed or a number may be added.
But authorization on it will ensure that scammers earn money from fraud, and the user will get wasted time without financial income.
We wish you never to fall into the hands of deceivers!
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl+Enter.
VAT refund for individuals
It all starts with a letter from the Google Docs service dropping into your mailbox, and in it there is a link to a notice of due payment in connection with VAT compensation. By clicking on it, the user will be taken to a rather convincing-looking website of the “Unified Compensation Center for the Return of Unpaid Funds,” richly decorated with state symbols. There, the victim is offered to chat with a lawyer who will help draw up all the paperwork for payment.
In fact, the “lawyer” is a bot, which, in the course of a fairly plausible-looking scripted “conversation,” first offers to fill out a form and then asks to pay for “legal services.” Thus, criminals may have at least the user’s personal information at their disposal, and at most their money.
Reviews
My friend and I have one expensive PCP rifle between us. We always take her on all sorts of picnics in order to shoot at cans, bottles and other targets. So, this same friend sent me a month and a half ago a link to an online store offering the coolest night sights and thermal imagers for 1999 rubles. And he says, let’s pool this device. Based on the fact that in our latitudes the cost of such toys starts at 20,000 rubles, I decided to support his idea. We paid for the parcel by cash on delivery, and after opening the parcel we were disappointed to learn that inside there was a cheap toy gun with suction cups. We are still sending out all sorts of complaints, but have not yet received any money back. Next time, we won’t be fooled by free prices and check the reputation of the stores before purchasing.
Dmitry Gennadievich, Nizhnevartovsk
Not long ago, my father-in-law, who has accounts on social networks, but is not very well versed in the Internet space, received a message on VKontakte about a large lottery win. Moreover, he was not embarrassed by the fact that he did not submit applications to participate in any drawings. In general, he followed the link and transferred several thousand rubles to the scammers for processing the transfer. I didn’t think anyone else would fall for such a scam.
Andrey, Astrakhan
How to protect yourself from online scammers
In order not to lose your hard-earned money, keep a cool head, read our reviews of current fraudulent schemes, take timely measures to protect yourself from them and try to follow the rules of safe behavior on the Internet:
- Do not click on links in emails or messages from unknown senders.
- Check the details: typos in URLs, strange domain zones and errors in texts are sure signs of dangerous pages.
- Do not enter personal data - and especially card details - on sites that have raised even the slightest doubt.
- Do not trust messages about gifts and sudden wins - especially if you did not participate in the sweepstakes.
- Use a reliable solution that protects against online fraud and phishing.
Is there a 100% way?
Unfortunately, there is no 100% way to find out a person’s full name or location and other confidential information by card/phone number, etc. There are different databases and catalogs, but the information there may be invalid or not up to date.
There is no point in contacting the police or a bank in order to find out the name of a certain person based on the data you have. The Ministry of Internal Affairs does not have the right (and especially the bank) to disclose confidential information. Full names are disclosed by law enforcement agencies only in the event of high-profile incidents when journalists are involved in the investigation.
Banks especially don’t do this, partly because it is not within their competence. Therefore, requesting data from government agencies and banking organizations is a pointless exercise .
As a result, the question often arises: is there any point at all in all these databases and catalogs? Yes, it makes sense. In this way, you can save your property from the most famous scammers who “inherit” on the Internet. As a rule, their numbers and VK pages are present in most catalogs.
In addition, by studying all the lists of criminals, you will quickly learn the basic principles of protection against fraudulent activities. This especially helps in the fight against recent scammers who have not yet had time to “show up” anywhere.
Before we begin to understand how to find scammers, we will clarify once again: none of the methods below gives a 100% guarantee that this is a scammer . The probability increases, but you can’t be sure based on these methods. Therefore, even if you really want to, it is better to avoid contact with such individuals or organizations.
