Scammers have increased their activity amid massive failures of Internet services

Fraudsters began to attack Russians more often against the background of massive failures of large Internet services - in the first ten months of 2025, the activity of scammers increased by about 27% compared to the same period last year. This is stated in a study by the Informzashita company, which was reviewed by Izvestia on November 24.

Fraudsters use failures and delays in online services as a cover for inventing plausible legends accompanying criminal schemes. For example, they spread phishing messages disguised as access restoration notifications.

"Users are waiting for job restoration notifications, official support is overloaded, and the news background creates a convincing cover story for intruders," explained Pavel Kovalenko, director of the Fraud Prevention center.

Users who encounter errors in the services receive emails with supposedly official warnings about account blocking and the need to confirm their data. In real-world disruptions, people are more likely to click on links to fake sites, which increases the success of attacks and allows attackers to collect logins, passwords, and confirmation codes.

In addition, scammers create clone websites that mimic government portals. Ads are being activated in search results offering to restore access to "Public Services" or submit an application through a fake interface. In case of failures in the official portal, many users go to the first available site without verifying the authenticity of the address.

In addition, attackers began to introduce themselves more often as employees of banks, the tax Service or the Ministry of Internal Affairs, convincing victims of the need to prevent certain "unauthorized transactions" and demanding that their savings be transferred to a supposedly secure account.

To reduce the risks of such attacks, experts urged users to pay close attention to messages about access restoration and compensation, independently check website addresses and install applications only from official sources.

Link to you: scammers intensified phishing attacks before Black Friday

What other schemes do the attackers use on the eve of the sale and how to protect themselves?

Earlier that day, the Interior Ministry warned that fraudsters had begun actively using artificial intelligence (AI) to create fake photos of road accidents in order to illegally receive insurance payments. Insurers recommend that drivers take photos and videos from the scene from different angles, and be sure to capture the surrounding environment.

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