Rospotrebnadzor and the Ministry of Finance listed the most popular schemes of deception during a pandemic. One of the above – sales of goods and services, which are actually not. Attackers, for example, offer air purifier supposedly remove the infection, super-effective masks and cures for coronavirus. The new scheme of divorce appear every day, but they all are based on common algorithms. Key psychological techniques the scammers called the Bank and gave the recipe to counter: “listen to your intuition and increase financial literacy.”
According to Rospotrebnadzor, the scammers started to use the regime of restrictions of movement. Victims impose services that supposedly will help to see how far from home you can move. At the same time please enter your Bank card details. In the Arsenal of cheaters now and sending SMS messages about imaginary penalties for violation of quarantine: paying this “penalty” goes nowhere. There are reports of charitable events in support of victims of coronavirus, but the donated money given to the criminals.
New methods, flow, calls of fraud appear every day, but they are based on the basic algorithms of social engineering, said the consultant of information security Department of the Bank of Russia Maria Rumyantseva.
According to estimates of the Central Bank in the past year, fraudsters have stolen from the Russians to 5.7 billion rubles. Most of the funds – 3 billion rubles were stolen when paying for goods and services: victims of 371 thousand times transferred their money for non-existent purchases. Another 2.2 billion is stolen through self-service banks. On assurances from the imaginary security of banks, the Russians were led 161, a thousand times. Another 525 million rubles was stolen from Bank cards at ATMs and payment terminals.
Pandemic inspired the criminals to new notions: during the mass isolation of the Central Bank recorded a surge of activity of speculators. “Fraudsters among the first to respond to the emergence of new technologies and invent ways to use to their advantage. Their goal is to get the payment details of the victim or forcing yourself to make a transfer,” – said Maria Rumyantseva during the webinar on protecting against financial fraud.
the job of an attacker using psychological manipulation to turn off the critical thinking of the victim and “enable obedience by using certain triggers, like Pavlov’s dogs,” says the consultant of the Central Bank. To do this, the scammers use several types of so-called traps of social interaction. One of the pitfalls is to give the victim something, then to ask about the return service, to instill a sense of the debtor. That something can be your time. An obvious example is the distribution of free samples. Neace��idny example – compliments, flattery or a long eloquent stories about something with the request in the end. The victim uncomfortable for the spent time on it, and it performs the request. “Scammers use your best qualities – courtesy, responsiveness – against you,” said Rumyantsev. People value and your time, that too only on the hands of fraudsters. If a person is persuaded to fill the questionnaire, do some work, he often goes for a cheater to the end.
Another method of social engineering – creating a chain of associations that disables critical thinking. The scheme is good for those who are susceptible to herd mentality Give the man to understand: “It’s expensive, so efficiently, so need” or create the illusion of scarcity. This technique is now used by the scammers offering money to book a place for vaccination against coronavirus. Like, as soon as you invent a vaccine, you’ll be the first who will get it.
Speculators affect several emotions: fear, greed, loneliness, curiosity. “The goal of attackers is to create stress or stereotyped the situation and turn off analytical thinking. If you are unfamiliar caller calls in you a storm of emotions, and then begins to push, invading personal space is a sure sign that it’s time to end the conversation,” advises the consultant of the Bank of Russia.
