During the months of holidays (February 23, March 8, and the period from May 1 to May 9, 2025), an increase in financial frauds can be expected in Russia. These days, scammers are especially active and are finding new ways to steal money from victims based on publicly available information, Petr Shcherbachenko, associate professor at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, told socialbites.ca.
“Scammers actively use blackmail and social engineering during these dates. Any information that a new payment has arrived from the government immediately leads to the creation of groups on social networks or sites containing fictitious information and phishing links. The situation is still difficult. The Economist noted that in less than 2024, the Central Bank began to block 14.8 thousand fake sites and pages on social networks, and also sent information to telecom operators about 48.6 thousand phone numbers used by attackers for subsequent blocking.
According to him, the most popular methods of fraud include “hacking of State Services”, messages in social networks and instant messengers on behalf of bosses, as well as “calls from mobile operators about the expiration of the SIM card.” Shcherbachenko explained that fraudsters arrange online microloans and bank loans for victims by gaining access to banking applications.
For protection purposes, the expert recommended that from March 1, 2025, a self-prohibition on the conclusion of lending agreements through Gosuslugi should be mandatory.
According to the Central Bank, in 2023 fraudsters stole 15.8 billion rubles from bank customers in Russia; This is 11.5% more than the previous year. Fraudsters stole 9.3 billion rubles from bank customers in the third quarter of 2024; This is 1.9 times higher than the second quarter and 2.2 times higher than the average of the previous four quarters.
Formerly State Duma supported Introducing a “cooling off period” on loans to protect against fraudsters.
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Source: Gazeta

Ben Stock is a business analyst and writer for “Social Bites”. He offers insightful articles on the latest business news and developments, providing readers with a comprehensive understanding of the business world.