VTB tells about popular fraud schemes during Black Friday

In anticipation of the sale season and the upcoming Black Friday in late November, the activity of fraudsters has increased by 30%, VTB reported on November 22. It warned that Russians should be especially vigilant with fake store websites, false advertising links and ads for super discounts. The share of these scenarios in November can reach up to a third of all attacks of attackers, stressed in the credit organization.

Thus, scammers create fake websites of stores that look identical to well-known brands and offer goods with big discounts. This way they try to steal bank card data or collect payment for non-existent goods.

In addition, fraudsters send fake promotional offers and false links to pre-order discounted goods to gain access to customers' bank cards and accounts. Once paid for, such goods are either not delivered or turn out to be counterfeit.

In addition, scammers post ads for super discounts in messengers, including closed chat rooms. If a user follows the link, he or she will download a malicious ARC file disguised as an application to receive promo codes or discounts. Once installed, fraudsters gain access to passwords, one-time codes and other confidential information and can manage bank accounts without the victim's knowledge.

Senior Vice President of VTB, Head of Digital Business Department Nikita Chugunov reminded that simple security rules can save money and avoid unpleasant incidents with financial fraudsters: you can not trust unknown people, you need to read SMS from the bank, you should not install unknown programs on personal devices.

"Remember the basic rule: use official websites and do not follow strange links you receive even from acquaintances in messengers. If you have already entered your data, urgently contact your bank to block your cards and accounts," Chugunov added.

On November 17, Evgeny Pankov, project manager of the .RU/.RF domain coordination center, told Izvestia that there has been a steady increase in phishing attacks conducted via messengers, especially Telegram and WhatsApp (owned by Meta, whose activities are banned in Russia). According to him, 2,374 domains imitating Telegram were blocked in Runet in the first 10 months of this year, which is 2.2 times higher than the same period last year. For the second messenger, the number of blocked domains increased more than five times - from 205 to 1,036.