Group-IB: cyber fraudsters use fear of vaccinations to steal money The Russians were warned about this by analysts of Group-IB, who, as reported in the company “Lenta.ru”, managed to detect a new large-scale fraudulent campaign in one of the social networks.
In comments to posts in popular groups with a population of over one million, criminals publish false news about a new strain of coronavirus. They also attach a link to the clone site of the Russian Ministry of Health to the messages. There, potential victims see a fake interview with the head of the department, Mikhail Murashko, in which it is claimed that a new wave of the pandemic will destroy up to 80 percent of the country's population, and the vaccinated Russians are said to be the first to die.
After a few seconds, the user is redirected to a fraudulent website promising to participate in the drawing or receive a large money transfer, the amount of which is always 237,568 rubles. The victim is offered to withdraw money, but for this they are asked to enter their bank card details.
“Scammers know that fear and panic are great at promoting any content, even the most dubious. In the new scheme, the cybercriminals decided to combine fake stuffing, fanning panic, and traditional phishing forms that steal bank card data, ”said Yakov Kravtsov, head of DRP Group-IB's digital risk research department. He also added that the company's specialists have already found more than 2.6 thousand such comments with “sensational” statements by experts and fraudulent links.
Analysts urged social media users to be critical of such information and to be careful when clicking on links with questionable content. In particular, you should pay attention to the domain name of the resource. You should enter confidential data and bank card details only on verified sites.
Meanwhile, it turned out that more than half of the residents of Russia (62 percent) doubt that they can independently ensure the inviolability of their personal data, and fear cyber fraudsters. This data was shared with Lenta.ru at the NAFI Analytical Center, whose experts also named the most vulnerable group of the population to hackers.