Expert told about the actions of fraudsters after the theft of Telegram account

Fraudsters, having gained access to an account in Telegram, can demand money from the owner for its return or distribute fake information among subscribers in the messenger, the CEO of Zecurion and cybersecurity expert Alexei Raevsky said on Tuesday, December 17.

On the eve of the Interior Ministry's department for organizing the fight against the illegal use of information and communication technologies reported that fraudsters have invented a new scheme to steal accounts in Telegram, reports NSN. The scammers use an old phishing pattern to gain access to the messenger, offering to subscribe to a marketplace channel, RT reports.

As explained in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the attackers offer to subscribe to the "official site" and "Telegram-channel" of the marketplace specifically for entrepreneurs, using a fake domain, Life.Ru writes.

Fraudsters are looking for suppliers to convince them to enter a phone number, after which they will lose access to their account. The agency urged to be vigilant and not to follow suspicious links, reports Moscow 24.

Raevsky specified that the potential audience of fraudsters are merchants on various online platforms, as they have money. Also, many online businessmen have their Telegram channels where they promote their products, and these channels are linked to Telegram accounts.

"Therefore, by intercepting them, you can get access to the management of the Telegram channel, and then there can be already a lot of options. First, scammers can distribute some inaccurate information to subscribers, ask for money, take orders and so on. Secondly, for someone it can be a significant resource, which was invested a lot of money for the development, replenishment of subscribers. Therefore, fraudsters can simply demand money to return access to the account," - said the expert in conversation with aif.ru.

Chained together: Roskomnadzor tells about the most effective fraud schemes

Teenagers and retirees are often drawn into "covert operations"

Earlier in the day it became known that fraudsters have developed a new scheme to deceive victims by hacking a cell phone during online shopping, reports 360.ru.

December 9 in the Telegram-channel of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation reported that about 16.1 million attacks of fraudsters were reflected in July - September 2024 by credit organizations in Russia, reports the agency of city news "Moscow".

Earlier, on November 17, Evgeny Pankov, project manager of the .RU/.RF domain coordination center, told Izvestia that there is 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.