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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
New schemes of scammers and how to protect yourself from them
Hardly there is a mobile phone owner who has not been called or messaged by scammers — about prizes with six zeros, drawings in which you did not participate, about assistance payments that must be paid for first, and so on.
The cynicism of scammers knows no bounds: taking a large amount for evacuation from a city engulfed in flames like Mariupol and disappearing with the money has happened.
Bankers, police, mobile operators and online traders remind citizens once again how to recognize scammers and not fall into cleverly set traps. This round table was dedicated to the traditional campaign “ShakhraHoodBye,” writes the publication ZN.ua.
“During the full-scale war, payment scammers did not disappear. Moreover, 2022 year has seen an increase in cyberfraud and cybercrime. The amount of losses by banks, traders, and their clients from illegal actions of cybercriminals last year amounted to more than 480 million UAH. This is 46% more than the pre-war 2021-year. The number of fraudulent card actions rose by 8%,” said Andriy Podderyogin, director of the Department of Payment Systems and Innovative Development at the National Bank of Ukraine.
According to A. Podderyogin, last year the average amount of a single illegal operation was about 2200 hryvnias. This is a third more than 2021.
If we compare changes in the level of card fraud by place of operation, then for 1 million UAH of operations the amount of losses from fraudulent actions looks like this:
in retail networks it decreased quite significantly — from 40 UAH 2021 year to 16 UAH 2022-th;
it decreased just as significantly in ATMs: from 29 UAH 2021 year to 5 UAH 2022-th;
increased online to 133 UAH 2022 year against 114 UAH 2021-th.
In quantitative terms, also the most cases of fraud in 2022 year were online — 86% of their total. As before, more than half of the amount of losses come from people revealing their card data, one-time passwords to confirm transactions, or login data to online banking.
However, in addition to the classic during the war, scammers have new scenarios. Popular is not only fake charity when scammers ask for money for the army, equipment, treatment of soldiers, but also fake social assistance from government or international organizations. Scammers, seeking access to citizens’ financial data, stylize their sites as government portals, “Dii,” “eDopomoha” (e-help), sites of Ukrainian banks, international organizations and well-known payment services. People leave on these sites information that should not be disclosed (CVV code, PINs, passwords for online banking), then criminals either steal money from trusted citizens’ accounts or psychologically pressure them to make a payment to scammers.
NBU has identified over 4 thousand such sites and about 8 thousand fraudulent domains. Operators of fraudulent resources are mostly Russian formations, about two-thirds of the total.
The National Bank and the National Cybersecurity Coordination Center under the National Security and Defense Council developed a mechanism that blocks a user’s transition to a phishing site and redirects them to a page warning about fraud. Thanks to this, in less than three months it helped prevent about 2,5 million transitions to phishing resources.
However, one must not only remain vigilant but also observe cyber hygiene. “For example, insufficient protection of a social media account is a risk of unauthorized access and the execution of fraud schemes like ‘a friend asks for a loan,’ as well as taking out online loans,” warns Yuriy Vykhodyets, head of the Cyber Police Department of the National Police of Ukraine. According to him, since the beginning of the year his agency has received over 20 thousand citizen inquiries. More than 75% of them are from victims of online fraud.
The most common cyberfraud schemes: sale of non-existent goods, telephone fraud, housing rental schemes for internally displaced persons, evacuation transports of citizens from combat zones.
Pseudo-sellers online offer various goods and services on prepayment terms and disappear after receiving money. But if before the large-scale war scammers were selling, for example, clothes, now they sell helmets, body armor and other military equipment. The same story with phishing: counterfeit sites of the Red Cross, “eSupport,” charitable funds.
“The level of scammers’ cynicism is extraordinary! — said Yuriy Vykhodyets. — One example is pseudo-evacuation of Mariupol residents. A suspect in a criminal case promised to evacuate a family from the occupied city to the controlled territory for 10 thousand hryvnias. Not waiting for help, Mariupol residents died. The whole family. The case is now in court. The scammer faces up to eight years in prison.”
What to do and what not to do so that your money does not end up in cybercriminals’ pockets.
1. Keep bank and mobile operator codes, the three-digit CVV code on the back of the payment card, card PINs, internet banking passwords, email passwords, social media account passwords, and Gmail/Cloud or Apple ID accounts secret.
2. Check the websites where you shop online, use a virtual card for such purchases, and do not follow links in messages when communicating with the seller or buyer.
3. Protect your financial phone number. Keep SMS codes from mobile operators, PUK code and SIM card serial number secret, register the SIM card on your passport, disable remote SIM replacement, register in the mobile operator’s online cabinet, and set up a separate number for bank interactions.
The most common type of fraud is “call of happiness”
According to the retail giant PrivatBank, the most common type of fraud is so-called social engineering — “calls of happiness.” Scammers pose as bank security employees, inform that accounts will be blocked, or that a transfer was received, or that a large sum was won, and then ask the client to provide secret information: password, CVV code, etc. Do not fall for such tricks — bank employees never ask a client to provide a password or other secret data.
In addition, scammers nowadays often call people in temporarily occupied territories and, presenting themselves as bank employees, offer help to withdraw money from accounts. The scheme is: the scammer offers the victim to transfer money from their bank account to a specified account, and then a courier supposedly will bring cash. Of course, there is no courier. At the same time the scammers do not give time to think, insisting that if the victim does not transfer money now, they will “burn.” If you receive such a call, it is a scammer calling you. It is better to end the conversation immediately and contact your bank’s support.
If you are called and told about a huge prize, even though you did not participate in any drawings or promotions — this is a scam. Later they will surely offer, for example, to pay a tax to receive the prize. The “prize” will not delight you.
Author: Viktor Konev
ZN.ua
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Нові схеми шахраїв та як від них захиститися". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: ANTIKOR.
