The State Duma reported on more targeted attacks by fraudsters on Russians

Scammers have started using more targeted attacks that take into account the age, profession, and digital activity of citizens. This was announced on April 26 by Anton Nemkin, a member of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Information Technologies and Communications.

"In recent years, scammers have been increasingly segmenting their audience and selecting attack scenarios for specific social groups. Previously, the schemes were massive and vague, but now there is a transition to targeted attacks, which use age, profession, digital activity, and even a person's life circumstances. This makes social engineering much more dangerous," he told TASS.

The parliamentarian noted that the transition from massive and vague schemes to personalized attacks makes social engineering much more dangerous. First of all, elderly people, including veterans and pensioners, remain under attack. For this category of citizens, attackers most often use scenarios with payments, recalculation of pensions, as well as calls on behalf of employees of the Social Fund or banks. Nemkin explained that criminals use trust in government institutions and low digital literacy to obtain SMS codes or card data.

In addition, attacks on young people and parents of schoolchildren have intensified. They are offered grants, benefits, registration on educational platforms or access to government services. Such schemes often mimic real digital services, but clicking on links leads to account theft or malware infection on devices. Public sector workers, in particular doctors and teachers, are also at risk. For them, fraudsters create pretexts related to data checks, certifications, or updating corporate systems, which allows them to disguise the attack as a workflow.

The deputy also drew attention to the increasing cases of hacking accounts of active users of marketplaces and delivery services. Criminals use phishing and website spoofing to further attack the victim's contacts. The parliamentarian stressed that the digitalization of society leads to the complication of fraudulent schemes, which requires citizens to constantly improve their skills in the digital environment and be critical of any requests for money or personal data.

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Users are often willing to pay for a "quick fix" without thinking about the risks.

On the same day, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation warned about the danger of SMS-bombing scammers. According to the agency, SMS bombing is a cyberattack in which a lot of messages arrive at the victim's number in a short time. Such actions can lead to leakage of personal data and theft of funds.