The expert spoke about a new scheme of fraud with discounts on housing and communal services

Fraudsters in Russia, posing as employees of social protection or district administrations, offer fictitious "winter" discounts on housing and communal services (housing and communal services) in order to steal funds. This was announced on November 28 by Andrey Biychuk, director of the Defender MTS product.

"The attackers, posing as employees of social services, extort personal data from citizens under the pretext of "identity identification," which leads to the theft of money from bank cards," he said in an interview with RIA Novosti.

According to Biychuk, the attackers first inform the victim about the introduction of special "winter" discounts for housing and communal services and offer to apply for appropriate benefits. After that, the scammers ask the citizen for one-time SMS passwords under the pretext of "identification" or "linking a personal account", which, in turn, are bank transaction confirmation codes.

It is noted that in warming up with the victim, the attackers refer to non-existent regulations on seasonal benefits.

The expert clarified that issues related to the provision of benefits and subsidies for housing and communal services are resolved through official statements or a personal visit to the relevant authorities.

Strong increase: tariffs for housing and communal services will double in 2026

The growth will occur on January 1 and October 1

Earlier, on November 6, it was reported that fraudsters began to actively use Telegram bots disguised as housing and communal services after the transition of some Russian regions to a single payment document (EPD) for housing and communal services in electronic form. According to the scheme, the victim must click on the link and send data about his place of residence to the bot, specify the phone number and enter the "confirmation code" in the registration form. Attackers may also try to obtain this information from a personal conversation with the alleged head of the HOA or HBC.

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