How not to become a victim of scammers?

With the development of modern digital technologies, a new type of fraud has appeared — remote. Mobile communications, e-mail, social networks, online banking, online commerce and other digital services and technologies give fraudsters a huge opportunity to deceive gullible and sympathetic citizens. Unfortunately, employees of the KBSU also fell into this trap, and therefore, we want to bring to your attention a memo prepared by the security service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the KBR.

Once again, an attempt was made to rob a KBSU employee by telephone. This time, an employee of one of the departments of the university, Natalya G., almost became a victim, who at the height of the working day received a call from a man with a pleasant, strict baritone voice, who introduced himself as a bank employee. He gave her card number and said that someone was trying to make a dubious transfer from her account, in order to prevent it she had to find a secluded place and dictate to the employee the code that came to her in SMS from number 900. Natalya was confused, The “bank employee” put pressure on the fact that the transfer was being made to the account of a criminal organization and that it should be interrupted immediately, otherwise it would not only lose money, but would also be held criminally liable.

Natalya practically “give up” and almost made an unfortunate mistake, if not for her colleague, who simply forced her to stop the conversation, despite the increasing threats from the fake bank employee.

This story ended happily, but not everyone is so lucky.

Given the increase in cases of remote fraud, the police warn about the basic principles that attackers are guided by when deceiving citizens, methods of fraud and rules that will help secure property.

Clear signs of a scam:

They call you or send SMS “from the bank”, the interlocutor introduces himself as a security officer and tries to convince that:

-Your card has been blocked — allegedly, a dubious operation was carried out on it and now it needs to be unblocked.
-Or a dubious transfer is being made on your account right now, and you must confirm it.
-Or the bank closes the account at your request — choose in which branch to carry out the operation.

You may also receive an SMS with the same text and phone number, which will help you solve the problem. To “unblock” or secure the card, you will be prompted to urgently transfer funds to a “safe” account, from which they can supposedly be returned later.

What to do?

First of all, interrupt the conversation and call the official number yourself — the employees will clarify the status of your account. The Hotline phone number is on the back of any bank card, and finding them on the Internet is even easier.

The situation is complicated by the fact that fraudsters have learned to copy bank numbers. So in such a situation, you need to be especially careful.

Attention! Remember, a bank employee will never ask you for confidential information: full card details (card number, PIN and CVV code), bank SMS passwords; never requires you to make transactions with the card.

Fraudsters have gotten smarter

However, scammers will try to use your awareness. The caller can emphasize that the user should not tell anyone the password, so you will be switched to a “robot”. Or you may be prompted to install an application that supposedly should secure your smartphone. This is enough to withdraw money or take possession of account data.

In addition, scammers modify scenarios: if many have already heard about the bait with the theft of money, then closing an account is not such a sensational pretext.

Remember that the scammer’s job is to catch you off guard and not give you time to analyze the situation, so he will insist that you comply with his requirements as quickly as possible.

Therefore, it is important — DO NOT tell anyone CVC / CVV codes and codes from SMS.

Rule number 1 — interrupt the conversation and call back the official number!