An IT expert warned Russians about a wave of fraud amid the blocking of Roblox

Against the background of restrictions on the WhatsApp messenger and the blocking of the popular Russian game Roblox, a surge in phishing mailings is expected that will play on the emotions and needs of users. This was stated by Staffcop's Product Director, Kontur expert.Daniil Borislavsky warned the Aegis on Thursday, December 11.

He noted that attackers traditionally use the moments when familiar services become unavailable or unstable to offer fake offers under the guise of an "alternative."

The expert named two particularly dangerous and relevant scenarios. The first concerns children and teenagers — they are massively sent links to an allegedly improved or updated improved version of Roblox, promising full access to the game "despite being blocked."

"A child can thoughtlessly install a fake application and actually give scammers access to all the data on the phone or enter an SMS code to receive the application," Borislavsky explained in an interview with Lenta.Ru .

The second one is aimed at older people. Users are being sent false notifications that WhatsApp, which is "not blocked," or its "alternative client that definitely works," has appeared.

The expert warned that fake versions of popular services are full—fledged tools for compromising phone data, banking applications, as well as correspondence and contacts.

He urged never to download applications using links from newsletters or messengers, even if the message looks official, and to use only trusted platforms — Google Play, App Store and RuStore. He added that you should carefully check the developer and the permissions that the application requests.

In addition, the expert recommended that you definitely talk to children and elderly relatives who are at risk.

Stop the game: the Roblox platform was blocked in Russia

The reason was the banned propaganda

On December 4, Ekaterina Mizulina, the head of the Safe Internet League (LBI), announced that she would collect letters to send to Roskomnadzor against the blocking of Roblox in Russia.

According to Mizulina, she is currently receiving a lot of letters from teenagers who are concerned about blocking the game. She clarified that neither she nor LBI has anything to do with the recent blockages of FaceTime, Snapchat, Roblox, WhatsApp (part of Meta, the organization is recognized as extremist and banned in the Russian Federation), Discord and other platforms in Russia.

Later, on December 9, she clarified that schoolchildren, students and their parents had sent 63,000 letters complaining about the blocking of the game. 360.ru .

On November 28, Roskomnadzor announced new restrictions for WhatsApp (owned by Meta, a company whose activities are recognized as extremist and banned in the Russian Federation), RT reports. According to the agency, the messenger continues to violate Russian law: it is used to organize and carry out terrorist actions on the territory of Russia, to recruit their perpetrators, for fraudulent and other crimes against our citizens.

On the same day, Andrei Svintsov, deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, admitted that WhatsApp could be blocked in Russia for four to six months, NSN reports.

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