They have issued a double: the deceived victims of scammers will be attacked again
Russians lost more than 55 billion rubles from the actions of cybercriminals last year. About half of this amount was stolen using social engineering methods. At the same time, attackers are increasingly using two—stage psychological schemes, where the main weapon is the fear and gullibility of citizens. Izvestia found out why people are deceived repeatedly and how to protect inspired citizens from danger.
A play in two acts
The official channel of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for combating Cybercrime announced a new algorithm for fraudsters. At the first stage, the victim receives a call under a domestic pretext: an appointment with a doctor, replacing the intercom keys, checking the meters. During the conversation, the person is asked to dictate the SMS code. At the second stage, the victim gets a call again and introduces himself as law enforcement officers or the bank's security service. They report that the previous call was fraudulent, and they are afraid that personal data is already at risk. As irrefutable evidence, scammers refer to a code previously reported by a gullible citizen.
"The person is convinced that he is faced with a real attack, and the "representative of the authorities" is clearly aware of the details. At this moment, fear and gratitude for "help" dramatically increase confidence in further instructions," the Bulletin of the Russian Cyber Police channel reports.
Further, under the pretext of protecting money or transferring it to a "secure account", a person is inclined to financial transactions in favor of criminals.
At the same time, victims usually share the situation with their relatives, they hear warnings from them, they say, you should not talk to strangers at all, that the police themselves come to your house or call you, like representatives of other special services. And they still contact us again and give the money to the scammers.
A police source recalled that this phenomenon had been seen before.
— More than 20 years ago, fraud was widespread in the sale of dietary supplements to certain categories of citizens, — says a former operative of the MURA's specialized department for combating fraud. — At that time, they were sold powdered chalk under the guise of a panacea for all diseases, and a few years later they called and informed them that they could return the money they spent by paying taxes. There were cases when the same people were deceived for the third time — under the guise of police officers who allegedly detained fraudsters.
It's not just elderly Russians who are being led by phone scams. In Novorossiysk, an 18-year-old local resident became a victim of fraud. The attackers began processing the guy with an innocuous call from an "employee of the intercom company", asking him to dictate the SMS code to "link the digital key to the apartment." Having gained access to the number, the scammers launched the second stage — the legend of hacking "Gosuslug" and a call from a false law enforcement officer. The teenager was informed that his parents face criminal liability for money transfers abroad. To save his family, he personally cashed out all his savings — 2 million rubles — and handed them over to the courier who arrived.
"Psychology, not hacking"
Daria Koshkina, head of the Solar AURA external digital threat monitoring service at Solar Group, noted that in this case we are not talking about high technical qualifications, but about knowledge of human psychology.
According to her, in the 1990s and 2000s, scammers used such techniques to "process" people on the street, but now they are used remotely. It is not entirely correct to talk about technical security measures in this case, because attackers do everything to ensure that the victim performs the required action on his own, including canceling self-locks on loans or naming secret codes.
"The main thing is not to panic, not to rush to take any action, and especially to be on your guard if you are in a hurry," the expert advises.
Koshkina stressed that the tactics of two-stage phishing are designed to keep the victim on edge, so the schemes are unwound within a few hours.
Stress is an ally of deception
Victimology, the science of the behavior of victims of crimes, has long been talking about the predisposition of certain people and groups to become victims due to a combination of subjective factors (psychological characteristics, habits). Psychiatrist Alexey Vilkov told Izvestia about the mental and emotional factors influencing a person's tendency to be deceived.
— Usually, increased suggestibility is an innate quality, — said the expert. — Fraudsters can check for its presence in a particular person using their preliminary actions. He becomes more suggestible and less susceptible to an objective assessment of the situation if he is in a state of prolonged chronic stress, that is, he experiences increased anxiety and constantly deals with a large number of problems. In such a situation, his criticality in assessing what is happening decreases.
According to the expert, a person can also become more suggestible during depressive experiences when his mood is lowered for a long time, including under the influence of external stress.
— Considering that there are quite a lot of people under stress, anxiety and depression, intruders can use this, — says the psychiatrist. — It is much easier to influence such people, because they, as a rule, are not inclined to seek help from their loved ones, they often "digest" negative experiences on their own or, conversely, seek support and assistance "on the side", including from scammers who are ready to "offer" this "help". Therefore, such people are more vulnerable and prone to deception.
Rescue Instructions
Experts urge to show calmness and self-control in such situations.
— If your relative receives the first suspicious call and dictates the code, you should act quickly, but without panic. First, you need to regain control over banking operations, block the card, or temporarily suspend transfers in mobile banking. Then it is necessary to break off contact: to completely stop further communication between a relative and scammers — they will put pressure on, change the legends until they get their way, advises Koshkina.
Konstantin Parfenyev, an expert in the field of IT security, reminded that the easiest way to find out if everything is in order with the account is to call the bank at the official number and personally check the information, rather than trust callers from unknown numbers. It's also not difficult to ask about the details of a police officer who makes a phone call, and then contact the unit he purports to represent.
— The simplest and most obvious verification methods are ignored by people who are at the mercy of scammers. Hanging up the phone is the most effective and easiest way to save your money," says the source.
He also believes that young people should provide up-to-date information about how to cheat their older relatives.
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