The expert on lies listed three phases of manipulation by scammers

Profiler, expert on lies and sign language, business coach, entrepreneur, blogger Ilya Anishchenko listed three phases of manipulation by fraudsters that turn a sane person into an obedient executor of the will of criminals. In an interview with Radio 1 on December 10, he explained that the fraudsters' scheme does not begin with the "stupidity of the victim", but with a data leak.

Scammers do not call blindly — they know that a person is waiting for a courier, has a child, or has experienced hacking of "Public Services". Such a point strike, based on social engineering, immediately reduces critical thinking: when a stranger voices personal details, the brain automatically perceives him as "knowledgeable" and more trustworthy.

This is followed by the stage of intimidation — the person is convinced that he is under investigation, that his money is in danger. The task is not to let it cool down. The specialist noted that the purpose of scammers is "to keep a person in constant tension and fear." Against this background, the ancient instinct "hit, run or freeze" is activated, and most often the victim chooses the latter, ceasing to think sensibly and perceiving the intervention of loved ones as a threat.

The next step is isolation and complete control. The profiler explained that scammers strive to become the only source of "truth" and create an information vacuum around the victim. During this period, a person changes dramatically: he becomes secretive, goes to another room for conversations, reacts aggressively to questions and comes up with incredible excuses just to protect the distorted reality imposed on him.

According to Anishchenko, scammers do not just act by deception — they consistently rebuild a person's psychological state using stress, fear and isolation.

Bad Santa: scammers profit from the New Year holidays

Experts told about the most dangerous schemes of cybercriminals

Earlier on December 11th 360.ru He wrote that residents of the Moscow region were reminded of a way to strengthen account protection on "Public Services". We are talking about the new "Trusted Contact" function, which can be a relative or a close friend. He will receive an additional confirmation code if the user has decided to change the password. At the same time, he will not have access to his personal account.

On the same day, expert Daniil Borislavsky warned that against the background of restrictions on the WhatsApp messenger (part of Meta, the organization is recognized as extremist and banned in the Russian Federation) and the blocking of the popular Russian game Roblox, a surge in phishing mailings is expected. The expert warned that fake versions of popular services are full—fledged tools for compromising phone data, banking applications, as well as correspondence and contacts.

On December 10, Igor Bederov, in an interview with RT, said that the Roblox gaming platform, which has been blocked in Russia since the beginning of December, had become fertile ground for intruders. According to the Russian Interior Ministry, about 40 crimes have been committed on the platform since the beginning of 2025.

On December 6, expert Alexandra Radchenko warned about a new photo fraud scheme in messages. According to her, the victims receive messages allegedly from acquaintances. They contain confidential text like "I'm looking at a photo, I remember you" and a link that pretends to be an image, but in fact leads to malware downloading to the device, NSN reports.

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