Fraudsters began sending fake notifications about alleged leaks from the FSB to employees of Russian personal data operators (banks, mobile operators, Internet providers and others) for the purpose of blackmail and extortion. Igor Bederov, head of the information and analytical research department of T.Hunter, told socialbites.ca.
As part of the new scheme, fraudsters are contacting companies posing as FSB employees to request an audit over alleged leaks of customers’ personal data. Then, the scammers either offer to immediately resolve the issue through bribery, or, under the guise of verification, obtain personal information or other protected information about the company’s employees and proceed to blackmail.
“The sending of such messages is a further development of the fraud scheme that emerged in May 2023, in which employees of the company were allegedly contacted by its managers through an account on Messenger. The latter reported some problems and contacted a familiar FSB officer to resolve the issue for money,” Bederov said.
To make it more convincing, letters from scammers in the new program are attached to photographs of printed instructions and orders of the FSB with seals and signatures of real officers. According to Bederov, these documents are fake.
“Darknet is known to initiate the process of making fraudulent requests to various law enforcement agencies to obtain data from mobile phone carriers, credit unions, social networks and more. “This is a highly developing market where you can buy a convincing fake in almost any department,” added the expert.
Bederov attributes the emergence of a new fraud scheme to the tightening of penalties in the Russian Federation for leaking and improper processing of Russians’ personal data. The relevant law is President Vladimir Putin. signed December 12, 2023.
Russians before warned It’s about a new wave of military-related fraud.