- Статьи
- Internet and technology
- Alone at home: how scammers get into apartments with the help of children
Alone at home: how scammers get into apartments with the help of children
Fraudsters can deceive children in order to gain access to their parents' apartments, experts have warned about this. At least two families in the elite River Park residential complex in southern Moscow have recently become targets for such attacks. At the end of last week, a 13-year-old girl, frightened by intruders, helped them rob an apartment. And just a couple of days later, scammers attacked another schoolgirl from the same house in a similar way — only the fact that her parents took care of her cybersecurity prevented the crime. For details on how scammers get into apartments with the help of children, what distinguishes the schemes of intruders and how to protect yourself from them, read the Izvestia article.
What is known about scammers' attacks on children in the capital's residential complex
Kristina, an eighth grade student (the names of the characters have been changed hereafter), who lives in the River Park residential complex in the capital, almost became a victim of fraud on April 13. According to her mother Irina, parental control is enabled on the gadgets of a 13-year—old girl: installation of applications is prohibited, time in games is limited, and there is also a website filter - access is possible only to resources from the "white list".
"We talk to the child regularly — about once a month — and analyze real cases of fraud — what schemes are there, as well as what methods of pressure and intimidation are used by intruders," Irina says in an interview with Izvestia. — Unfortunately, security solutions do not block incoming calls from unknown numbers and do not restrict communication with strangers in instant messengers.
At some point, unknown people wrote to Kristina - the girl was informed that she had allegedly won bonuses in an online game, and then asked to specify the phone number and the bank to which the card is linked. The student has her own card, and she provided the information, after which she was sent a link to the website where she had to enter the card details and the CVC code. At this stage, parental control was activated — access to the site was blocked because it was not included in the allowed list. Fortunately for Kristina, that was the end of the story. And her classmate Sasha, who lives in the same residential complex, was less lucky.
— The scammers acted differently with Sasha: They asked me to send a code ostensibly to receive a parcel from an express delivery service," Irina notes. — This was the beginning of a fraud scheme, which eventually led to the physical theft of property.
How fraudsters managed to steal an apartment in the capital's residential complex
Sasha became the target of scammers just a few days before the attack on Kristina. According to Irina, sending the code allegedly to receive the parcel turned out to be the fact that the attackers fraudulently gained access to Sasha's account on the Gosuslugi portal (more detailed information is not disclosed today in the interests of the investigation).
After that, the scammers contacted Sasha — the scammers intimidated the girl for two days by saying that her family was allegedly in great danger if she did not follow their instructions. According to Irina, the scammers forced the schoolgirl to give them full information about her parents and the family's property.
"Sasha, she thought, was trying to protect her family," Irina tells Izvestia. — The pretext was that due to the hacking of the account and the transfer of money, the family could allegedly be prosecuted for sponsoring terrorism.
To prevent this from happening, Sasha agreed to leave the apartment keys in the entrance at an agreed place before the whole family left for the wedding. As reported by the Telegram channel Mash, after that, a 16-year-old teenager entered the apartment, who was also deceived by scammers. With the help of a grinder and a crowbar, the young man opened the safe belonging to the head of the family and took from there a casket with gold jewelry, € 600 and 350 thousand rubles in cash.
The total damage from the theft exceeded 1 million rubles. At the same time, all the time while the theft was being committed, the scammers controlled the situation, asking Sasha if the family was going home. When the owners returned the next day, they found overturned things and a sawn safe. Sasha's parents immediately filed a police report, after which the search for intruders began.
How scammers use children to gain access to apartments
Today, at least a quarter of attacks on teenagers are based on the fact that scammers blackmail children by saving their parents from any situation - in fact, this is the second most popular method of attacking children and teenagers after buying game currency, Irina Zinovkina, head of analytical research at Positive Technologies, says in an interview with Izvestia.
"The average age of the victims targeted by the attackers is 14 years old, and it often starts with dating in messengers, hacking into "Public Services," a call from "law enforcement" agencies, and even through fake codes from pick—up points," the expert says.
Attackers traditionally seek to use any available sources of information about a potential victim, says Andrey Sidenko, head of online child safety at Kaspersky Lab.
In this context, attention may also be paid to the digital footprint of children, for example, the data they post on social networks: interior photos, address mentions, pictures with pictures or other information that indirectly assesses the place of residence and lifestyle of the family. However, children are not always aware of the possible risks and may perceive the publication of such data as safe.
—It is highly likely that attackers will continue to use social engineering methods in 2026, including in relation to children," notes Andrei Sidenko. — Their task is to reduce the criticality of perception and present the interaction as harmless or playful.
Meanwhile, scammers have tried to attack parents through their children before. In particular, by the end of 2025, analysts at the F6 Financial Fraud Protection department recorded over 7,000 incidents in Russia in which attackers used social engineering to control the actions of children to steal money from their parents' bank accounts. The total damage from such crimes per year can exceed 1 billion rubles, says Dmitry Dudkov, chief specialist at F6 for combating financial fraud.
How to protect children from fraud attacks
When talking about protecting children from online scammers, it is important to remember that first of all it does not come down to any technology, but in general to teaching children the rules of cyber hygiene, Irina Zinovkina tells Izvestia. According to the expert, the child needs to be informed that he will not be able to solve the problems of adults. If students are threatened that something will happen to their parents, then these are 100% scammers.
— In addition, it is important to maintain a trusting relationship with the child: even if he makes a mistake and falls for the bait of scammers (and no one is immune from this), he should not be afraid to tell his parents or other close adults about this so that they can help solve the problem, — advises the specialist.
Prevention and digital literacy play a key role in protecting children from cybercriminals, Andrei Sidenko agrees. It is important for parents to regularly discuss basic Internet safety rules with their children and explain which data should not be publicly available. First of all, it is necessary to teach children not to post the exact address, geolocation and detailed photos of the apartment online. It is important to explain to them that any "assignments" on the Internet related to personal information or home should be discussed with parents.
According to Andrey Sidenko, it is also necessary to use privacy settings on social networks and messengers, and if possible, enable parental control tools. It is equally important to build a trusting dialogue: the child must understand that in any suspicious situation he can turn to his parents without fear of punishment.
— Pay attention to the emotional state of the child: if his behavior has changed for no apparent reason, he has withdrawn into himself or, conversely, is too excited, talk to him to find out the reasons for such changes, — concludes Dmitry Dudkov. — And also use services created specifically for children.: Today, banks already offer specialized cards that restrict minors' access to financial transactions.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
