The Ministry of Internal Affairs told about multi-stage schemes of deceiving children by scammers

On October 15, Sergey Kalinin, First Deputy head of the Department for combating the illegal use of information and communication Technologies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, spoke about the multi‑stage schemes that fraudsters use to deceive minors.

He pointed out that at different stages of such schemes, scammers pose as representatives of various services and organizations.

"Initially, the main task of the attackers was to force the child to perform a specific action: dictate a code from an SMS, send geolocation, or go into a chat with the promise of game gifts. Such tricks serve as a starting point for the further development of the fraudulent scheme," Kalinin explained in an interview with RIA Novosti.

He clarified that for the first contact, criminals use not only phone calls, but also social networks, as well as online games. Then the scheme develops: it includes scammers posing as employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB. They exert psychological pressure on the child, intimidating him and his relatives with possible criminal liability.

The final stage, as Kalinin noted, is based on false promises to "save" the child or "prove his innocence": under this pretext, he is urgently required to perform a number of actions — for example, to arrange a remote search, transfer cash or valuables to a courier, or take part in fictitious "operational activities."

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On October 12, retired Major General of the Federal Security Service Alexander Perelygin drew attention to the fact that young people dare to commit illegal acts and fraud due to conflicts in their families. Teenagers, he added, are sometimes also driven by a desire to earn extra money. The expert stressed that what is happening is a scourge of humanity, which can never be fully eliminated.