The expert named the most common fraud schemes in messengers

The most common types of scams in messengers are offers of easy money and help for a "friend". A data analyst from the coordination center of the .RU/ domains told Izvestia about this on March 11.Russian Federation Evgeny Pankov.

He added that the most popular fraudulent schemes in 2024 and 2025 remain promotions, sales with huge discounts and voting in various contests.

"But the imagination of scammers is inexhaustible, they are constantly coming up with new ways. Fake Wi-Fi networks that require authorization via messengers, as well as groups of bots in Telegram that simulate live communication and persuade users to click on phishing links located in the account profile, have been gaining popularity recently," Pankov said.

In a hurry and carelessness, people click on malicious links, enter their account information on malicious sites, and download infected files. The realization that the account has been hacked comes later, when the avatar suddenly changes, unfamiliar subscriptions appear, or friends start receiving strange messages and requests, the expert recalled.

"Unfortunately, despite the fact that scams through social networks and messengers are being talked about almost everywhere today, the number of victims is not decreasing. This is largely due to the fact that users commit dangerous actions automatically, without thinking," the expert noted.

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According to him, in order not to become a victim of scammers and maintain access to your accounts, you need to follow several rules: set up two-factor authentication in all messengers and social networks, do not follow links from emails and messages from questionable senders, do not enter usernames and passwords from accounts on third-party sites, even if their interface looks familiar..

"Be careful and check the addresses of sites offering authorization through an account, be vigilant to the requests of "friends", and if the message or request is strange, it is better to call back and clarify. As they say, "trust, but verify." In this case, haste can cost you not only the loss of access to your account, but also money and bring joy only to scammers," concluded Pankov.

On March 6, Evgeny Shatov, a partner at Capital Lab, told Izvestia about the main risks of buying memcoins, cryptocurrencies based on Internet memes. According to him, their price is constantly changing due to celebrity mentions and hype on social media. This creates "soap bubbles" that can burst at any moment, the expert noted. He added that memcoins do not have a serious technological base, a real application, or a limited issue like Bitcoin.