The costs of aggression: scammers steal money under the guise of couriers
The attackers are calling en masse under the guise of couriers to receive one-time bank codes, the press service of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation said. In particular, they inform you about the delivery of the product and ask you to confirm its receipt. Izvestia investigated what other schemes are common and how an ordinary person can recognize a fraudulent call and respond to it correctly.
Protection from fraudsters
One of the most common tricks of fraudsters remains phone calls, during which fraudsters convince a person to transfer savings to a "protected" or "special" account with the Central Bank for the sake of "saving funds," the Central Bank's press service told Izvestia. However, there are no such accounts in reality.
"We are constantly monitoring the spread of fraudulent scenarios. And if we record the massive use of new schemes, then we publish information about it on our website in the section "Countering fraudulent practices". The Bank of Russia recommends that bank customers do not download any mobile applications or programs at the request of strangers, do not perform any actions in banking or other applications, and do not follow unknown links," the regulator said.
It is absolutely unacceptable to disclose personal or financial information to outsiders, regardless of what reason or method of persuasion is used, the Central Bank recalled. If there are doubts about the security of funds in the account, you should contact the bank using the phone number indicated on the official website of the organization or on the back of the card.
Attackers often pose as law enforcement officers and report a data leak in the organization where you previously worked, Oleg Stepanov, an expert at the ProFiT project of the Association for the Development of Financial Literacy, told Izvestia. Further, under the pretext of an allegedly initiated criminal case, they demand non-disclosure and "assistance in catching intruders from the banking environment."
— "Assistance" consists in withdrawing funds from their accounts under their control and putting them in a safe deposit box, which supposedly will help catch criminals. After completing all operations, phone numbers become unavailable, and correspondence in messengers is deleted," the expert said.
Current Russian legislation provides for criminal liability for fraud, including telephone fraud, Lali Chebukhanova, associate professor of the Law Research Center, Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Artificial Intelligence at the Rudn University, noted in an interview with Izvestia. However, the scale of such fraud remains significant, and new schemes and methods of deception are emerging. In 2025, a new law was passed that aims to specifically combat cyber and phone fraud. The measures taken make it possible to protect citizens and increase their vigilance.
"In addition, new measures are currently being considered — the second package of anti—fraud measures related to restrictions on the number of bank cards, data transfer by mobile operators, and so on," the expert noted. — However, the fight against fraudsters is complicated by new technologies such as voice cloning and multi-channel attacks, which require an integrated approach and interagency cooperation.
Basic rules
Countering telephone fraud through calls and messengers is conventionally divided into two areas — technical and social, Dmitry Dudkov, a specialist at F6 financial fraud prevention company, told Izvestia. The first category includes measures that are used, for example, by mobile operators, noting suspicious calls for subscribers. In addition, well-known IT companies either release special programs or add functions to their services that allow them to determine whether they are listed as spammers or scammers when making an incoming call from an unknown number. Such tools do reduce the risk of dealing with scammers, but they do not completely eliminate the problem.
— The main method of protection available to every user is the principle of "zero trust". This principle presupposes a default distrust of those whom you do not know personally, who call from unfamiliar numbers, those who make strange atypical requests or try to get confidential information from you, says the expert.
In practice, this recommendation can be implemented simply by not picking up the phone when receiving incoming calls from unknown subscribers, Dmitry Dudkov believes. This measure should be especially applied to children who use the phone primarily to communicate with their parents and loved ones. The development of artificial intelligence has made it possible for attackers to create voice deepfakes, so when talking to an outsider, it is better to immediately hang up or interrupt the conversation after a couple of seconds: even a short recording of your voice can serve as a raw material for forgery, which criminals use to deceive family members or bank employees.
— In cases where a user has to constantly receive calls from unfamiliar numbers, we recommend that they immediately stop communicating if they try to get sensitive information from you (for example, a text message code), push you to take urgent action, or intimidate you. If you can't end the conversation without explaining the reasons, ask the caller to send you information via SMS and immediately end the call," Dmitry Dudkov said.
Incoming calls from unknown numbers should not be answered with a repeat call, the expert emphasized. If it becomes necessary to contact the organization on whose behalf you tried to make a call, it is recommended to do so exclusively through the phones posted on its official website.
The main rule is to be very critical of unfamiliar calls and not to respond to an offer to provide any data (for example, the confirmation code that was just sent to you by SMS), Oleg Stepanov confirmed. If a subscriber is persistent during a phone conversation and literally demands to tell him the numbers from the message, this is a clear sign that you are communicating with scammers. In this case, immediately interrupt the conversation.
It is important to remember that SMS codes are an identifier that is intended for self—introduction by the user in the service where it is requested, Alexandra Pozharskaya, an expert of the Popular Front project For Borrowers' Rights and the Moshelovka platform, reminded Izvestia. You should never tell anyone about it, especially if you have not requested the service.
— And, of course, it is important to remember that company employees and government representatives will not make calls from mobile numbers or communicate via messengers. The only time when a courier can call a customer is to specify the delivery time or address, although even here you need to be very careful. In all other situations, it's almost guaranteed to be a fraudulent call or message," she noted.
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