In 2024, financial fraudsters will become more active in Russia, which will lead to an increase in fraud compared to 2023. This forecast was given to socialbites.ca by the leading analyst of FAC.CT’s Digital Risk Protection department. Evgeny Egorov.
“During the holiday season, we must be prepared for seasonal scams before the holidays. For example, phishing sites for hotel reservations, flight ticket purchases or fake sweepstakes, cash compensation. There will also be an increase before the school year begins. The expert said that users should be especially careful during the New Year and Christmas holidays, when attackers can steal data and money from the card under the guise of a lucrative promotion.
He explained that the same situation will develop on the eve of February 14 and 23, March 8, only the FakeDate scheme will be activated for phishing sites and advertisements under the guise of promotions in stores.
“A common scenario: a scammer, posing as an attractive girl, meets a potential victim on social networks or a dating site and offers to spend a romantic evening at a stand-up show, in the cinema, at a hookah bar or to order dinner. The victim receives a link to a phishing site, pays a “ticket” and the money and card information are stolen by the attackers. Egorov stated that the money was deleted two or three times when the “refund” was made.
According to him, this summer was the peak of the activities of cybercriminals who sent phishing pages to steal accounts in instant messengers. Children’s creative contests, where prizes are awarded in the form of coupons to the summer camp, have again become the most popular topic for bait.
“Unplanned scenarios are also actively used. Cybercriminals just need a new flow of information from which they can adapt their plans. It is possible that new plans may emerge due to the geopolitical situation, changes in legislation or the separation or emergence of companies and services,” the expert concluded.
According to analysts from the FACCT Information Security Monitoring and Incident Response Team (CERT-FACCT), more than 29,221 phishing domains were detected in 2023. Of these, 17,315 were involved in the “Mammoth” scheme, which involved paying for fake deliveries of non-existent goods or services.
Previously at the Central Bank explainedHow to spot a scam site?