The attackers targeted people of pre-retirement age: telephone scammers began to inform them about certain additional payments for seniority, luring out card data. The payment details are then used to steal the funds. The activation of this scheme was reported to Izvestia in VTB, the information was confirmed by the Central Bank and other major credit institutions. Older people are more likely to trust tricks, and before They expect financial support from the state in the New Year, experts explained.
You are paid extra
Telephone scammers began to call Russians of pre-retirement age under the guise of government employees and promise to make “payments” for the accumulated work experience. This was told to Izvestia in VTB. Having gained confidence during the conversation, the attackers ask to clarify the bank card number allegedly for crediting funds, as well as dictate the code from the SMS message. With the help of this data, criminals can steal a citizen’s funds. Attempts of such deception in December 2021 were recorded in Gazprombank. The scheme of deception is also known in Post Bank and Zenit.
— On the eve of the New Year, the number of fraudulent attacks on customer accounts is traditionally increasing. This year, the criminals decided to influence people of pre-retirement age. The attackers are trying to take advantage of the relaxation of the population, because the financial year is already closing and it’s time for pre-holiday shopping,” explained Nikita Chugunov, Senior Vice President of VTB.
Gazprombank clarified: if you tell the fraudsters all the details of the card (including the CVC code), they will be able to use this data to pay for online purchases from someone else’s “plastic”. By luring the code from the SMS, the attackers bypass the technology of confirming that the card is located directly with the owner. The company “Serchinform”, which specializes in cybersecurity, confirmed that the main risk of the scheme with alleged payments on experience is the loss of money before the New Year holidays without the possibility of their return. From the position of the bank, the client himself confirmed the operation by calling the code from the SMS.
Fraudsters have used the topic of payments from the state to deceive citizens before. However, in December they focused on working with people of pre-retirement age.
The older generation is one of the most vulnerable and easy targets, stated Stanislav Pavlunin, Director of Security at Post Bank. He added that it’s easier to come up with tricks for this category.
– For elderly clients, the bank carries out enhanced control of transactional activity. In addition, there are separate procedures for interaction with account holders at the age when they confirm transactions. For bank employees, pensioners are clients from the risk zone. Employees of the departments are specially instructed about interaction with older clients,” Stanislav Pavlunin emphasized.
One of the drivers for the implementation of such deception scenarios is financial surcharges and indexing, which are usually announced by the state before New Year, according to Zenit Bank. Also, at the end of the year, bills are often adopted aimed at increasing the level of income of the population, Alexander Dardanov, managing director of the Center for the development of cooperation with clients of UBRiR, added, therefore, reports on the indexation of benefits or the payment of additional amounts no longer cause surprise and concern among people of retirement and pre-retirement age.
New Year’s expectations
— In addition, on the eve of the New Year, as a rule, quite a lot of different sweepstakes and lotteries are held. During this period, citizens are particularly trusting of such events, leave contact phone numbers to participate in sweepstakes, therefore they become an easier target for social engineering than in other periods,” Alexander Dardanov noted.
In the Central Bank Izvestia was confirmed that fake payments to people of pre-retirement age for work experience are one of the scenarios used by attackers.
The regulator stressed that telephone fraud remains one of the main channels of influence for criminals using social engineering methods.
– The Bank of Russia strongly recommends that citizens never, under any circumstances, communicate by phone or through other communication channels (Internet, e-mail) to outsiders, whoever they may be, their personal data, bank card data, SMS password, secret words. Disclosure of this information can lead to embezzlement of money,” the Central Bank stressed.
In addition, you should not open suspicious emails or SMS messages on your phone with embedded links, as well as enter card details on questionable resources, Rosbank reminded.
The ONF project “For the Rights of Borrowers” receives complaints about fraud attempts with payments for seniority, project manager Evgenia Lazareva confirmed to Izvestia. She clarified that the attackers are represented by employees of the FIU, the Ministry of Labor, social Services and report on the payments due for the years worked. As a rule, criminals mention the numbers of laws and use complex bureaucratic formulations to confuse the interlocutor.
In accordance with the budget of the FIU, from January 1, 2022, insurance pensions will increase by 5.9%, and social pensions — by 7.7% from April 1. In September 2021, the president ordered to charge 10 thousand rubles to all pensioners: then the money was credited to the cards automatically. There was no information about additional payments in December yet. As for the so-called seniority surcharges, employees of certain professions, for example, civil servants and the military, really have the right to payments for years of service: to receive them, you need to contact FIU with a whole package of documents, including providing card details. At the same time, no one will require the citizens to send a code from SMS.