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- Large collection: how fraudsters speculate on the topic of paying taxes by Russians
Large collection: how fraudsters speculate on the topic of paying taxes by Russians
Fraudsters can use various schemes to deceive Russians as December 1 approaches — the single deadline for paying property taxes for 2024 for owners of real estate, land and transport. The fear of penalties, fines, or account blocking due to delay forces people to act quickly, losing their vigilance, which is what the attackers use. For more information about how fraudsters speculate on the topic of paying taxes by Russians, how dangerous their schemes are and how to protect themselves from them, read the Izvestia article.
What is the topic of tax payment interesting to fraudsters?
The topic of taxes is universal and concerns almost every adult citizen of the Russian Federation, which provides fraudsters with a huge audience for attacks, Konstantin Larin, head of the cyber intelligence department at Bastion, said in an interview with Izvestia. The fear of penalties, fines or account blocking due to delay makes people act quickly, losing their vigilance, which is what the attackers use, the expert notes.
"In addition, the process of paying taxes may not be fully understood by citizens, and the situation itself often causes stress," says Vitaly Fomin, head of the information security analyst group at the Digital Economy League. — Using such emotions, scammers can easily deceive people.
At the same time, potential victims of scams may become even more vulnerable and prone to making hasty decisions if they receive false information about allegedly earlier tax payments, says Marina Probets, an Internet analyst and expert at Gazinformservice. Attackers can use this to obtain confidential financial information (bank card data, passwords from online accounts) under the pretext of helping to pay taxes or providing "official" information about new payment deadlines.
What tax-related speculations are possible for scammers in 2025
In 2025, there were already schemes in which fraudsters called people on behalf of representatives of the Federal Tax Service (FTS) and talked about their alleged tax deduction, says Vitaly Fomin. Next, the attackers asked to name the code from the SMS in order to complete the payment. After that, there were calls from "law enforcement agencies" reporting account hacking and financing of banned organizations.
— Another common scheme is that fraudsters contact citizens and inform them about the need to file a declaration and provide additional documents, — says the interlocutor of Izvestia. — Next, the attackers offer to register at the department for a certain time and ask you to dictate the SMS code to confirm the phone number. In this way, fraudsters gain access to the user's personal account on Gosuslugi.
In addition, according to Vitaly Fomin, attackers sometimes pose as employees of the Federal Tax Service and contact potential victims, ostensibly to clarify the data. As a result, the latter themselves tell the scammers when and what taxes they paid, that is, they provide them with their confidential information, which the scammers can then use for their own purposes.
In 2025, fake notifications in mail, SMS and instant messengers with phishing links to websites "to pay the debt" are massively distributed, adds Konstantin Larin. There has also been an increase in the number of calls from alleged government officials who offer assistance in "correcting errors in the declaration" — thus, attackers gain access to codes from messages, and hence to citizens' accounts on government portals or online banking.
— Another variant of the schemes is calls or messages from supposedly tax authorities, in which scammers inform the taxpayer that the deadline for paying taxes has changed, so the fee must be paid immediately, and precisely according to the specified "payments", — says Alexandra Shmigirilova, GR director of the Security Code Information Security company. — Otherwise, the attackers will face fines.
What tax fraud schemes have you encountered before
Fraudsters have been speculating on the topic of taxes for years: in particular, according to Vitaly Fomin, a scheme with sending letters from the Federal Tax Service about suspicious transactions of taxpayers was previously recorded. Citizens were asked to clarify the details with the "representative" of the service, as well as send him the necessary documents — for example, invoices, cash documents and invoices.
"If the citizens agreed, they provided personal information that the fraudsters could later use for their own purposes," the expert notes. — In addition, the attackers called on behalf of representatives of the Russian Post with a request to clarify the data for the delivery of a letter from the tax service.
Next, the scammers requested an SMS code received on the phone, which gave them access to someone else's personal account on the Gosuslugi portal. In such schemes, the attackers often called the person by first and last name, as well as mentioned his e-mail or address, which lowered the potential victim's vigilance and caused her to trust the caller, says Vitaly Fomin.
In addition, fraudsters had previously sent phishing emails with information about the new tax, adds Maria Mikhailova, head of the Angara MTDR brand protection group. The victim was asked to go to the bank's personal account via a phishing link and "submit an application for refusal of payments." Otherwise, according to the attackers, money would be debited from the account on a monthly basis. The result of the interaction with the phishing resource was the compromise of bank card data.
— Also in the arsenal of scammers there is an email newsletter with a QR code for paying taxes, - says Alexandra Shmigirilova. — Here, the calculation is based, among other things, on the inattention of users who may not pay attention to the fact that the address of the tax service does not apply to it at all.
What are the dangers of tax schemes and how to protect yourself from them
Fraudulent schemes related to taxation are primarily aimed at car or real estate owners who are required to pay taxes annually, says Vitaly Fomin. This makes them more susceptible to information about possible debt or error. In addition, the targets of such fraudulent schemes are sometimes the self-employed.
"Many of them, especially young people who have applied for this tax regime for part—time work, do not fully understand the payment system, which makes it easier for intruders to mislead them," the source said.
Individuals, especially those who have only recently started using online payments or are not too confident in digital tools, often become victims of such schemes, agrees Alexandra Shmigirilova. If a person receives a reminder from the alleged tax inspectorate that he needs to pay tax, then he will not always go to his personal account to check this amount and the need to pay it. Many busy users will prefer to pay directly using a link or QR code from the message.
In order to protect yourself from such threats, Kaspersky Lab chief expert Sergey Golovanov advises you to independently check any information on taxes in your personal accounts on the official website of the Federal Tax Service of Russia or the Gosuslugi portal. It is also useful to install security solutions that will prevent you from clicking on a phishing link, opening a malicious attachment, or warning you about a potentially fraudulent call.
— To protect yourself from scammers, it is important to remember: official authorities never call with threats and demands for urgent payment of taxes and fines, do not use messengers and do not ask to provide numbers from SMS or emails, — warns Alexey Vybornov, an analyst at the Positive Technologies research group.
Carefully check the recipients of the emails and the links contained in them — they may contain viruses or redirect to malicious resources disguised as the official website. This exercise of caution will help to recognize scammers and not replenish the statistics of their victims, the expert concludes.
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