Century after century, millennium after millennium, one thing in this world remains unchanged. The desire of some people to get rich at the expense of others. The only changes are the ways of dishonest taking away money, they keep pace, and sometimes even outstrip technological progress.
At the same time, fraudsters also actively use psychological techniques, as can be seen from the example of the most common scams in Russia, a list of which were compiled by bloggers of the Telegram channel Politjoystick.
10. Receive your winnings
An old but still effective scheme for divorcing gullible people for money. A person receives a paper or e-mail with good news: he has won a valuable prize. You just need to pay for the postage.
After the amount for the delivery is transferred to the specified account or phone number, the promised prize will wait for the "lucky person" for a lifetime.
9. Call from the director
The essence of this scam is that the boss calls you (allegedly) and asks you to pay for a service very urgently or transfer part of the daily proceeds to an electronic wallet.
The easiest question to stop such a fraud at the very beginning is to ask the "director" what his name is.
8. Social worker rushes to the rescue
And this fraud, popular in Russia, is primarily aimed at elderly people, large families, in a word, those who receive social support from the state.
Attackers call, posing as a social worker, and ask for the card number for the transfer of any benefits. Further - "a matter of technology", it is not difficult for fraudsters to get the full name and even the validity period of the card. Having obtained the desired information, they withdraw money from the card (for example, making purchases on sites that do not require entering CVV and SecureCode).
7. Friend, give me money!
By hacking an account on VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, or another popular social network, as well as instant messengers such as Skype, attackers gain access to their victim's friends list.
And then they begin to send out requests for financial assistance (the amount depends only on the appetites of the scammers). Many are ready to lend a helping hand to a friend in trouble, not suspecting that there is a completely different person on the other side of the screen.
If you receive such a message, before transferring money, ask a friend about some fact from his or her biography, or what only you and he (or she) know.
6. Fake sites
Such resources are disguised as real sites for the sale of electronic cinema tickets, air tickets, concerts of various performers, etc. After the purchase, the ticket either does not arrive at the post office, or it arrives, but upon entering the hall it will be scanned and recognized as fake.
In order not to become a victim of such a widespread fraud, buy tickets only on the websites of official ticket agencies (their names can be found on the event posters), or on the website of the event organizer. You cannot buy e-tickets on message boards and social networks.
Before you buy an e-ticket, enter the corresponding request into a search engine, and pay attention to the sites that are just below the "Advertising" frame. These sites are the most popular and demanded, and therefore the most reliable.
5. I take without looking
Another popular type of fraud in Russia is related to bank cards. Attackers are ready to buy goods at the price suggested by the buyer, and even without an initial inspection. All that is required from the seller is to provide the card number to which the money will be transferred.
4. I remove, damage
This type of scam is designed for superstitious citizens who are afraid of damage and the evil eye. Fraudsters offer them to buy miraculous amulets that protect against harmful effects.
By the way, during the Covid-19 epidemic, one of the hottest goods on Avito was a coronavirus amulet, which creates an invisible magical aura around its wearer, which has a detrimental effect on the infection. And at the same time for the financial well-being of its owner.
3. We compensate everything!
The essence of this scam lies in the fact that a certain "representative of government agencies" promises a respectable man in the street to compensate for the purchase of a low-quality product (for example, medicine). However, in order to make compensation, you must first pay a fee.
2. A relative in trouble
One of the most common cheaters is playing on family feelings. Imagine that a person “from the authorities” calls you and says that a son, daughter or other relative got into an accident where there is a victim, or committed another illegal act. He may face prison, and an urgent need to "settle the issue", of course, not for free. What would you do?
Amazingly, many people faced with this method of fraud were so shocked that they did not even think to call a relative back to find out if he was really in trouble. The attackers are counting on this effect, they push the victim to give the money as soon as possible, until she comes to her senses and does not start thinking logically.
1. Your bank card is blocked, and the account is closed
The first place among the most widespread methods of scams in Russia is occupied by a scheme using social engineering. Fraudsters use databases leaked from large banks.
- They call the victim, posing as a bank security officer (while in the background there are conversations that give the impression of a bank call center) and inform that the client's bank card is blocked.
- Another option - a dubious operation was carried out on it.
- Another, less common variant of lies is a message about closing a bank account, allegedly at the request of the user himself and an offer to choose in which bank branch to do this.
To unblock the card or cancel the operation, the attackers offer to provide the code that will be sent via SMS (this will give them access to the victim's online bank) or provide the full card number, its validity period and CVV code. Sometimes they offer to install an application that supposedly protects the smartphone from identity theft or transfer money to a "secure account".
The easiest and best thing to do in such a situation is to hang up, regardless of all the arguments of the "security officer", and call the bank's hotline yourself. And find out if you really got a call from a banking institution, or if they were scammers.