Experts named common fraudulent tricks to deceive young people

Since the beginning of 2025, fraudsters have increased their activity against young people and teenagers: the number of thefts has doubled compared to last year. This follows from VTB's information, which was reviewed by Izvestia on May 29. Experts have identified the most common tricks of intruders.

Among such schemes are fake online jobs. Scammers offer young people easy earnings on the Internet, from paid surveys to participating in marketing experiments and renting accounts from messengers. As a condition for starting work, they often require you to make an advance payment or provide personal information, which eventually leads to a loss of money. At the same time, the victim may be involved in dropper activities, promising high income for using her bank card or means of communication and convincing her that there is no responsibility for such actions.

In addition, scammers call teenagers, posing as police officers, security services or other official structures, and report non-existent emergencies. In particular, they may claim that their parents are in danger and urgently need to transfer money.

Scammers also deliberately spread false information in youth communities and on social networks in order to gain trust and manipulate users.

Fraudsters deceive Russians in the virtual world. What you need to know

In addition, they create fake promotions, winnings, or offer to purchase in-game currency. To receive a "prize" or bonuses, teenagers are asked to enter their bank card details or transfer money. As a result, the victim may lose both his money and access to the account, experts said.

In addition, scammers can convince a child to install remote access programs under the pretext of "increasing protection" or helping. This allows them to gain control over their parents' smartphone and banking applications, which leads to the theft of funds from their accounts.

"Teenagers become easy prey for intruders due to their lack of experience and gullibility. On the eve of the summer holidays, it is especially important to be careful, as scammers can become more active during this period. The main recommendation for parents is to explain to children that it is forbidden to comply with the demands of strangers, transfer bank card data to someone and install suspicious applications," said Dmitry Revyakin, Vice President of VTB, Head of the Corporate Interests Protection Department of the security Department.

In his opinion, it would be useful to restrict access to financial transactions on children's devices.

Earlier, on May 15, it was reported that 97% of Russians surveyed had experienced cyberbullying over the past year. This is stated in the results of a study by the SberMarketing agency and the digital risk management company BI.ZONE. At the same time, the most common type of fraud is telephone fraud: four out of five Russians (79%) have received such calls over the past 12 months.

The second most popular mailing list is in messengers.: 42% have encountered them. Fraudulent email newsletters and web resources are slightly less common - 35% and 21%, respectively, have interacted with them over the past year.