MOSCOW, April 10Russians should be wary of the appearance in foreign application stores, including the App Store, of applications from Russian banks that are under sanctions, officials said press service of the Bank of Russia.
The Department for Organizing the Combating Illegal Use of Information and Communication Technologies of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs reported earlier on Wednesday that fake VTB and Tinkoff Bank applications have appeared in the App Store, which steal personal data. 
«Applications from Russian banks under sanctions placed in foreign stores should cause concern,» the Central Bank said.
In order not to suffer from scammers, the Bank of Russia does not recommend that citizens download any mobile applications and programs at the request of unknown persons. The regulator also advises using only trusted application update sources located on banks’ online information resources and trusted application stores (in particular, Russian ones), as well as installing an antivirus and updating it regularly.
Since February 2022, the Bank of Russia has been involved in the process of blocking dubious applications located in the App Store, Google Play and other application stores. From February 28, 2022 to December 2023, the regulator initiated restriction of access to 58 applications.
From time to time, safe applications from the largest Russian banks that are subject to sanctions appear in the App Store — usually disguised. At the same time, there is no need to look for them — banks themselves warn clients about their appearance and send a download link. But such applications are quickly deleted.
So, on Tuesday the “T-Help” application appeared in the App Store. Tinkoff Bank support said that with its help you can use the bank’s services, and assured that “it is reliable and safe.” However, soon “T-Help” disappeared from the App Store.