Total frustration: how scammers use the topic of psychological help
Fraudsters can use various tricks on the topic of providing psychological assistance to deceive Russians, experts have warned about this. In particular, recently, attackers have been increasingly making calls under the guise of community psychological centers and offering free help to potential victims. For more information about how scammers use the subject of psychological counseling, what are the dangers of such tricks and how to protect yourself from them, read the Izvestia article.
Why is the subject of psychological assistance interesting to scammers
Russians often seek psychological help to discuss personal problems, especially when they find themselves in difficult life situations, experts from the MTS Defender service say in an interview with Izvestia. Scammers are observing a trend towards the growing popularity of psychological services and therefore are increasingly using fraudulent schemes on the topic of mental health.
"Despite the popularity of psychology among the urban population, literacy in this area remains at a fairly low level," says Yakov Filevsky, an expert on sociotechnical testing at Angara Security. — It can sometimes be extremely difficult for a potential client to distinguish a real specialist from a charlatan.
According to the expert, in the context of psychological counseling, a fraudster plays the role of authority, because a person comes to a psychologist at a time when they need help. Therefore, a potential victim can easily give out the information needed by the attacker.
In turn, Sergey Polunin, head of the IT infrastructure Solutions protection group at Gazinformservice, points out that the psychological services market is highly fragmented today. Many specialists work for themselves and consult in messengers and social networks, which is a favorable environment for all kinds of fake accounts and fraudulent services.
What schemes on the topic of psychological assistance should we expect in 2026
Recently, scammers have been increasingly making calls under the guise of community psychological centers and offering free help to potential victims, experts at MTS Defender say. If the person agrees, the attackers send a phishing link to enter personal information, ostensibly to make an appointment.
— After opening the link and entering the data, the fraudster gets access to them, while psychological counseling is not carried out, — experts warn.
In turn, the deputy head of the department of audits and compliance with information Security requirements at the Ural Center for Security Systems (UCSB) Ksenia Kuznetsova predicts that this year attackers may actively apply multi-stage social engineering. As part of such schemes, potential victims are searched through fake websites or "psychological support" groups, where they offer to fill out a detailed questionnaire. Using information about their personal and professional lives obtained during the survey, as well as answers to questions about problems, political and other views, attackers build a trusting dialogue and adapt social engineering scenarios to a specific person, forming his psychological profile for subsequent attacks involving money theft or other illegal actions.
— Fraudsters may also insist on installing a "special mobile application" or clicking on a link to a "closed webinar", which in fact leads to a phishing page, — says the interlocutor of Izvestia.
The scenario is especially dangerous when an employee opens a phishing link from a workstation: attackers can steal not only personal usernames and passwords, but also attack corporate services, install malware, or gain access to the internal network, she warns. This threatens not only to compromise the employee's account, but also to hack into the IT infrastructure of the entire company, followed by data leakage, server encryption, or blackmail. Moreover, money can be extorted from both the organization and a specific employee, threatening to disclose the fact of his negligence and dismissal.
What schemes on the topic of psychological assistance have you encountered before
Meanwhile, online scammers have been trying to speculate on the subject of psychological assistance for several years. In particular, according to Sergey Polunin, in addition to simple deception, there have been cases before when, after one or two consultations, potential victims tried to impose all kinds of additional "services" with a 100% prepayment, including courses, trainings and marathons.
"At such pseudo—trainings, a person was first drawn into a group, and then his boundaries were gradually broken, explaining the natural resistance to the victim's personal problem," says Yakov Filevsky. — At the same time, any doubt was labeled by the "mentors" as fear, tightness or injury, which had to be worked out for some money.
Fake offers of psychological help are mostly received by young people aged 18-35, as this age group is most often interested in the topic of mental health, experts from the MTS Defender service say. According to Ksenia Kuznetsova, for potential victims, the danger lies in stealing money for low-quality or failed sessions, fraudsters' access to online banking or obtaining microloans.
At the same time, social engineering is actively used: attackers play on a sense of urgency ("today is the last day of free diagnostics"), on authority ("I work according to a methodology approved by the institute"), as well as on empathy — they simulate a deep understanding of the problem so that the client himself reveals more details, the expert notes. A separate layer of fraud is the imitation of consultations using deepfakes, when the AI simulates an online meeting with a famous psychologist. A person pays money, but gets a dubious conversation with a bot instead of professional help.
How to protect yourself from the schemes of scammers on the topic of psychological help
Meanwhile, as Ksenia Kuznetsova notes, psychologists themselves are at risk of being attacked by scammers. Fraudsters can make an appointment with them under the guise of clients, simulate technical problems and send a link to a fake video service, where a specialist enters his username and password in an attempt to connect.
— As a result, the accounts of specialists are compromised, which threatens to lose access to online offices to continue working and reputational risks if fraudsters start sending phishing messages on behalf of a psychologist to his clients, - says the expert.
In order to protect themselves from the schemes of intruders on the topic of psychological counseling, experts interviewed by Izvestia advise following certain rules of cybersecurity. In particular, if an offer of psychological assistance has been received, it is necessary to check the company offering it through open sources, experts of the MTS Defender service advise.
At the same time, according to Yakov Filevsky, it is necessary to study specific specialists. They should have information about their education and professional path. A true professional offers clear working conditions, agrees on the boundaries of consultations and does not urgently need to buy a large course after the first conversation. If a "psychologist" makes difficult diagnoses from the threshold, presses, scares, or promises a quick breakthrough and immediately leads to payment, this is a reason to stop communicating with him, the expert warns.
— You should contact specialists with a verified background, including education, work experience and real reviews, — agrees Sergey Polunin. — It will be very useful to check these reviews outside of the psychologist's personal website or his group on one of the social networks.
In case of any suspicion of a data leak, it is important to immediately block the cards, change passwords on all important resources and, if corporate accounts are under attack, notify the employer's security service. It is also worth remembering that in a stressful situation, you can and should pause and check information through independent sources, even if it seems that help is urgently needed, concludes Ksenia Kuznetsova.
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