Recently, there have been more frequent cases of theft of funds in Russia using substituted telephone numbers identical to the telephone numbers of the Federal Security Service.
The FSB press service warned about this.
How to recognize telephone scammers
As a rule, fraudsters pose as employees of security agencies (other law enforcement agencies) and convince the victim to transfer personal or credit funds to a “safe account” or urgently cash them out and hand them over to a courier, allegedly to ensure the safety of the money and to assist law enforcement in preventing and solving economic crimes.
Fraudsters also often extort money in exchange for closing non-existent criminal cases.
In doing so, the fraudsters display fake service IDs, orders and other documents that allegedly oblige the citizen to provide assistance.
The scammers also insist on maintaining confidentiality and threaten to prosecute for refusing to cooperate or disclosing state secrets.
If the caller uses words and phrases such as “Ministry of Internal Affairs,” “Investigative Committee,” “FSB,” “bank security service representative,” “Central Bank single settlement account,” “safe account,” “provide card/passport/SNILS/code from SMS/” details, “your civic duty,” or tries to convince you to urgently sell your car or apartment, hang up.
Since scammers use spoof numbers and programs that imitate any voice and video image, you should be careful about calls and messages from colleagues, acquaintances, friends and relatives who claim that they are in trouble and urgently need a large sum of money.
The FSB also drew attention to the ever-increasing activity of the special services of unfriendly countries in involving Russians in illegal activities through deception, blackmail or bribery.
Their methods of operation include setting fire to government buildings and damaging social, transport and military infrastructure, extorting money under the pretext of donations to humanitarian/charitable organizations, and gaining access to information constituting a state secret from employees of military-industrial complex enterprises and military personnel.
Do not engage in dialogue with persons unknown to you, the FSB urged.
Author: Timur Khomichev