ST. PETERSBURG, April 6Despite the fact that telephone scammers in St. Petersburg still make calls on behalf of banks and mobile operators, they are increasingly trying to deceive people by providing “government services”, and also do not hesitate to sell non-existent goods, said Lieutenant Colonel, investigator of the State Investigative Directorate of the regional headquarters of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Justice Sofya Chulkova.
Imaginary government services are crowding out “banks”
“Of course, scammers continue to call citizens, posing as bank specialists or law enforcement officers who are allegedly investigating cases of transactions with their accounts. But new criminal schemes have also appeared: fraud under the guise of providing government services allegedly through the appropriate portal is now gaining momentum,” she said she.
According to Chulkova, when making calls to a mobile phone, the recognizable Gosuslugi logo is displayed, which is also used when sending SMS messages.
“At the moment, a criminal scheme is developing with phishing links that allegedly lead to a portal of government services or to the “website” of a government agency. At the same time, fraudsters may have different goals — from gaining access to a citizen’s personal data in order to deceive him, to using him personal account in other criminal schemes, since some Internet resources require authorization through the government services portal,” explained an investigator from the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region.
In order to avoid becoming a victim of this type of fraud, she advised paying attention to the fact that genuine mailings from the government services portal are always of a notification nature and do not require any action to switch to an Internet resource.
“Real employees of the Gosuslugi portal never make phone calls to its users,” Chulkova recalled.
Air sales
As the investigator noted, Internet scammers in St. Petersburg also practice this method of deceiving people, such as selling non-existent goods through specialized sites. Moreover, the “product” can be anything – from products that have ceased to be imported into Russia to used household appliances.
«In my case, there was a criminal case regarding the sale of game consoles. Since their supplies to Russia were then limited, enterprising citizens developed a criminal scheme that allowed them to sell goods without selling them,» Chulkova said.
According to her, after posting an advertisement for the sale of set-top boxes on a specialized website, the scammers offered potential buyers to create electronic wallets for subsequent payment, offering assistance in registering them. By following these instructions, victims received confirmation letters similar to the notifications that come when an electronic wallet is officially created.
«In fact, it was an account controlled by the scammers. Then they deliberately escalated the atmosphere by imitating calls from a courier who was supposedly about to deliver the ordered game consoles. At the same time, the victims received calls from a “top manager” who convinced them to speed up the sales process by replenishing an electronic wallet to pay for the purchase yourself when it is delivered. In reality, the “deal” ended with another call from the courier, who was allegedly late,” said the agency’s interlocutor.
Chulkova also cited a situation where the object of attention of Internet scammers in St. Petersburg was a service for finding travel companions for a trip. According to her, victims of deception were offered a phishing link to fill out a form, which is necessary for official travel registration. Since this questionnaire also contained information about the account from which its payment was debited, the corresponding amount went to the organizers of the “transport services.”
According to the police investigator, against the backdrop of active opposition to Internet fraud by law enforcement officers, this category of criminals will look for new ways to deceive people. Thus, it is already practiced to use an imitation of the voice of close relatives or work managers to convince a potential victim to carry out certain financial transactions. Also, calls do not stop, allegedly from mobile operators about the need to renew the contract for the use of a SIM card.
«The only way to protect yourself from this type of fraud is to simply not engage in any conversations or correspondence with anyone who claims to be a bank manager, a cell phone specialist, or a law enforcement officer. This may not be the case.» quite polite, but effective,” concluded Chulkova.