Experts talked about fraud schemes on the eve of the Unified State Exam

On the eve of the unified state exam, fraudsters may become more active. Experts from the Solar AURA External Digital Threat Monitoring Center of the Solar Group of Companies have prepared information on the schemes of intruders and advice in collaboration with the Russian Ministry of Education. They were reviewed by Izvestia on May 23.

Scammers try every day to motivate the victim to commit rash actions in order to gain access to banking applications, social networks, messengers or other confidential user information. The Unified State Exam is no exception in this case. Fraudsters take advantage of the naivety and stress of students, promising "magical" solutions for easy exams, which lead to sad consequences, experts said.

"For example, on the eve of the unified state exam, fraudsters may offer children to purchase "ready-made versions" of exam tickets for money. Prices for such "services" can vary widely — from several thousand to tens of thousands of rubles, depending on how realistic the offer seems and how much its distributor assures of its "reliability". The exam subject and the time before it also affect the price," the experts said.

In addition, attackers can contact graduates or their parents by phone on behalf of schools or government agencies with an offer to be the first to find out the results. All you need to do is register on some kind of "government platform" or provide a code that will be sent via SMS. As a result, the victim will lose not only money, but also accounts in social networks, messengers or banking applications.

To protect yourself from such risks, experts advise against using the tempting offers of scammers.

"All offers related to the purchase of answers to the Unified State Exam are fraud. This is due to the fact that the organizers of the Unified State Exam make significant efforts to ensure the safety of exam materials, and the likelihood of leaks is reduced to zero. Exams can be retaken, and it will be more difficult to recover lost money or accounts from social networks," the experts said.

Clicking on suspicious links can lead to the automatic download of malicious applications that monitor the user's smartphone or computer and steal confidential data: usernames and passwords from websites and social networks, bank card data, passport data.

"Do not provide personal information to strangers. No government agency will require you to provide personal information, including codes from SMS messages. Do not provide any information and end the conversation, and then call your school or the official hotline to verify the information," added the "Solar".

Intruders can exert psychological pressure and even threaten to achieve their goals. If the interlocutor tries in every possible way to convince you to follow the link or provide the code as soon as possible, you should immediately hang up the phone and inform your parents about the incident, and if necessary, contact the school and law enforcement agencies.

"You need to protect your smartphone. To do this, install an antivirus and install two-factor authentication on the most frequently used applications and online services. Do not install applications from unreliable sources. Also, make sure that already installed applications do not have access to phone functions that they do not need (for example, access to the camera, microphone, or contacts)," the experts concluded.

Earlier, on May 22, experts from the StormWall analytical center reported that during the Unified State Exam in Russia, there may be a surge in DDoS attacks on the educational sphere. According to preliminary estimates, the attacks will mainly be directed at electronic platforms and servers of educational institutions that are related to the organization, conduct and publication of the final assessment results.