Scammers began to send “invitations” to Russians’ emails for a personal appointment at the Central Bank. The corresponding warning was posted on the regulator’s Telegram channel.
“The scammers have developed their scheme, presenting themselves as Central Bank employees. Now they not only call people on behalf of the Central Bank, but also send e-mail messages with an invitation to a personal meeting at the Bank of Russia.”
– says broadcast.
Thus, the Central Bank gives a scheme in which scammers try to deceive the Russians:
– in a letter that begins with an appeal to the buyer, he is addressed by his name and surname, the time of admission and the current address of the Bank of Russia in the region of residence of the “victim” are indicated;
– The domain of the Central Bank, cbr.ru, is indicated as the sender of the message using the change of the e-mail address;
– after sending the letter, the scammers contact the “victim” and, under various pretexts, try to “extract” his bank card information and SMS code or persuade him to transfer money.
The organizer reminds that on his own initiative he does not invite citizens to a personal reception, his employees do not call people, do not send copies of any documents and do not offer to transfer money.
Precaution against scammers
On the editor’s website, a whole section is devoted to the fight against such schemes, telling how not to be fooled by the “tricks” of scammers. It is noted that the main means of influencing a potential victim is psychological pressure: “Attackers try to bring a person out of a calm state and turn off his logical thinking.” The Central Bank notes that this is why they often try to frighten the Russians or to please them with a sudden interest.
This section highlights that to avoid fraud, you cannot tell anyone or post passport data and any financial information (cardholder data, CVV code and SMS code) on social networks. In addition, the Central Bank asks Russians not to shop online through unverified sources and not to contact representatives of “banks” who report certain financial transactions allegedly carried out with your bank accounts. In this case, if you have concerns, you should contact the bank’s support service at the phone number indicated on the back of the bank card.
Central Bank recommendations don’t help everyone
to the police in February 2022. applied 39-year-old woman, chief economist of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation. The woman told the operators that she was a victim of fraudsters and gave them a large amount of money – 3 million 141 thousand rubles. According to her, she received a call that evening from a man who introduced himself to law enforcement and said that unidentified people were trying to get a big loan on his behalf. After that, the Central Bank employee told the scammer all the data they needed, and the next day transferred the funds to a specific “safe account”.
to the police in June 2022. discussed the general manager of a security company, who said that in the morning an unknown person called him, introduced himself as an inspector of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, and said that scammers had withdrawn money from his bank account.
He noted that he did not take any action, and then was changed to “employee” of the Central Bank by the “law enforcement officer”. The woman told the businessman that she needed to cash out the existing funds and deposit them in a “backup account”. A fake FSB official also spoke to him. The man states that he transferred a total of about 6.5 million rubles to the scammers. According to him, he realized he had been deceived when he heard “some grins” in the background during a conversation.
In November of the same year, the former inspector of the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation translated Fraudsters who present themselves as employees of the Bank of Russia, 30 million rubles. The attackers told the woman that her personal data had been “leaked” from the database and that cyber crooks could steal her savings. They asked the inspector to withdraw all the money from their account and load it onto the virtual card, and then transfer it to a reserve account allegedly displayed by the Central Bank. After she did this, scammers convinced her to sell her property, fearing that there might be collateral in banks for the loan. After she did what was necessary, she realized that she had been cheated on after a while.