Experts have warned about a new scheme of deception of recently dismissed Russians

Scammers have started using a new deception scheme aimed at citizens who have recently lost their jobs. The identified threat was reported to Izvestia on June 29 by analysts of the Russian DLBI darknet data leak intelligence and monitoring service.

According to experts, the attackers contact Russians who have recently been fired or are registered in employment centers. During the conversation, they report that the person allegedly was not fully paid the compensation due after his dismissal, and offer to apply for funds.

To do this, the victim is asked to fill in the necessary data, and then confirm the application using a code received from the Gosuslugi portal. After that, the scammers move on to the next stage of the scheme. Regardless of whether the person provided the code, the attackers claim that the account was allegedly hacked. Next, they use well-known social engineering methods: they convince them to transfer money to a so-called secure account or to conduct an "online declaration" of cash and then transfer the money to a courier.

"The peculiarity of the new scheme is that criminals have not only the victim's personal data, including name and phone number, but also information about her previous job. In some cases, the attackers give the names of employees of the HR services of companies, which increases the confidence of the potential victim," the experts said.

Experts believe that the source of such information may be linked to another fraudulent scheme. Earlier, attackers contacted large companies on behalf of government agencies and demanded that lists of recently dismissed employees be urgently sent, allegedly for record keeping.

Logged out of the chat: fraud in foreign messengers has decreased significantly

What measures have affected this and what new tricks can be expected from intruders?

Ashot Oganesyan, founder and Technical Director of DLBI, warned that the new scheme could be effective due to the lack of awareness of citizens about labor legislation.

"Many people do not fully understand what payments they are entitled to after their dismissal. In addition, finding a new job is often associated with stress and financial difficulties, so proposals for additional compensation may be perceived without due critical assessment," the expert explained.

He also reminded that under no circumstances should SMS codes and confirmation codes from the Gosuslugi portal be transmitted to outsiders.

Experts recommend that citizens check any information about payments through official channels, and employers should be attentive to requests for employee data and not send such information by telephone or to email addresses that do not belong to the official domains of government departments.

On June 21, it was reported that fraudsters had implemented a two—stage scheme to deceive pensioners, in which they first pose as employees of the Veterans' Council, and then as law enforcement agencies, it was reported on June 21. It is clarified that at the first stage, the attacker calls an elderly man and informs him about his alleged inclusion in the list of recipients on behalf of the Veterans Council, after which he asks for his passport details.