The Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation told about the use by fraudsters of a scheme with a self-ban on loans

Remote fraudsters have started using the self-lock activation function for issuing loans as an excuse to steal funds from citizens. This is evidenced by the data of the Russian Interior Ministry, which was reviewed by TASS on April 25.

According to the new scheme, the victim receives an SMS message stating that unknown persons allegedly gained illegal access to her account on the Gosuslugi portal. The text also indicates the "technical support" number for solving the problem. After the person calls back, the attackers confirm the information about the hack and link it to an "employee of the Central Bank."

A pseudo-employee of the financial regulator finds out the amount of the victim's savings and begins to intimidate her with information about allegedly submitted applications for multimillion-dollar loans. Then the scammer suggests that the person update the password on the "Public Services" and activate the self-locking function for loans.

It is clarified that after establishing a trusting contact, the fraudster convinces the citizen to temporarily transfer all savings to so-called special bank accounts. Having succumbed to panic, the deceived person follows all the instructions of the criminals, as a result of which he loses money.

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Director of the communication policy of the financial marketplace "I will choose.<url>" Anna Romanenko reported on April 24 that fraudsters in 2026 are increasingly targeting not direct theft of money, but access to user accounts and personal data. The expert also stressed that "chat relocation" schemes remain popular, when the user is asked to click on a link and enter a code, as well as attacks through fake banking applications and fake versions of messengers.