‘Victims are informed that the activities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are allegedly funded on their behalf’
Cyber experts told about new hacker schemes and ways to protect against fraudsters
Despite numerous attempts by the government to secure the personal data and money of citizens, fraud is still an urgent topic. Tatarstan citizens alone give 20 million rubles to attackers every week. Theft from bank cards and fraud using information and telecommunication technologies account for a quarter of all crimes — 13 thousand of them were registered. About 30-35 appeals on similar incidents are received from residents of the republic a day. New schemes are appearing more and more often. According to VTB, recently, attackers on behalf of state security agencies have begun calling Russians and offering official work to find criminals, promising monthly payment. Ksenia Rysaeva, the head of the group of analysts at Innostage CyberART Cyber Threat Counteraction Centre, told about other tricks and methods of protection. Read the details in the material of Realnoe Vremya.
“Attackers want to shift responsibility for illegal transfers”
The attackers have begun to use a new scheme. According to VTB, recently, attackers have begun calling Russians posing as state security agencies and offering official work to find criminals, promising monthly payment. Moreover, they attract those citizens who have already suffered from the actions of fraudsters.
“We have identified a new way of involving Russians in schemes for withdrawing funds to the accounts of intruders. Malefactors want to shift responsibility for illegal transfers to them and even promise them a salary, creating the impression of real activity to combat criminals," said Dmitry Revyakin, the head of the Corporate Interests Protection Department at VTB Bank.
In this scheme, the victim plays the role of a dropper — the attackers cash out the funds obtained illegally through them. They transfer money to the dropper's bank card and force him or her to follow further instructions. Thus, the victim may unwittingly become an accomplice to the crime.
“The measures taken by market players and the regulator make it increasingly difficult to withdraw money to criminals. However, scammers are coming up with more and more sophisticated schemes, and the number of attacks on customers continues to be quite high," Revyakin stressed.
According to him, if the dropper gets into the database of the Central Bank, then first of all, it is necessary to block its remote service channels, and then limit the possibility of withdrawing money through bank branches. This will prevent their further cashing out.
“Hackers rarely use any special technologies”
Fraud schemes on the Internet are also popular. So, phishing and vishing are actively developing, Ksenia Rysaeva, the head of the group of analysts at Innostage CyberART Cyber Threat Counteraction Center, told Realnoe Vremya.
For example, phishing is a common scheme. The victim receives a message in a messenger or email with a malicious file or a link to a website where they are asked to leave personal data.
The interlocutor of Realnoe Vremya also clarified that there is also a “more advanced and elaborated attack” — targeted phishing. Before sending the same malicious message, the attacker studies the victim and, based on the information received, sends the file purposefully.
“Vishing is not far behind in popularity," added Rysaeva. “It involves using voice communication to trick people into revealing confidential information or performing certain actions. This type of attack is usually carried out over the phone using automated voice messages or imitation/forgery of a human voice.
Besides, there is a more perfect form of vishing — pretexting. Scammers also first study the victim, after which they come up with a legend. They often call allegedly on behalf of law enforcement officers.
“Victims are informed that the activities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are being financed on their behalf, or they say that a criminal has been caught, who was found to have a general power of attorney on your behalf. In most cases, people panic and are easily deceived. During such an attack, a hacker acquires sensitive information. For pretexting, fraudsters can use passport data or the last 4 digits of the victim's bank account to ingratiate themselves into trust. As a rule, these data can be found in leaked databases," the expert explained.
What measures should be taken?
According to Rysaeva, if a person is in such a situation, it is first necessary to contact the police and report the details of what happened. After that, you need to contact your bank and block the online bank and cards, the data about which was transferred to the fraudster.
At the moment, options for protecting citizens from fraudsters are being discussed. For example, the initiative on the period of “cooling off” and “revocation” of the transfer is being worked out. Now the money is gone instantly, and it is impossible to return it yourself through the application. Besides, the possibility of returning the stolen money by the bank is being discussed, the analyst stressed.
She also talked about spam filters that block suspicious calls:
“At the moment, spam filters that report a possible spam call or block it are already popular. Applications of this type display information about an incoming or missed call from an unknown number, including the name of the organisation, its category and the reputation of the number (Kaspersky Who Calls, Phone by Google). However, you should not install everything in a row, often an official application can be disguised as a scam application that will require personal data from you.