Telephone Fraud: Underworld Tricks. How not to become a victim of fraud?

Modern technologies, of course, have made our lives much easier and more interesting. Gadgets, mobile communications, the Internet and other benefits of civilization are so firmly entrenched in the life of most modern people that sometimes it is not even clear how a couple of dozen years ago they did without all this.

But this phenomenon has a negative side. Technologies provide not only free access to any information, but also create the conditions for the emergence of new ideas among scammers and scammers. One of the most widespread types of criminal acts is telephone fraud. High-tech crime patterns range from the most primitive to complex and multi-stage, and the amount that victims of dishonest telephone scammers lose every year is billions of rubles.

Moreover, the investigation of telephone fraud is significantly complicated by the fact that the offender can act at a distance while in another city and even a country. According to law enforcement agencies, even citizens who are already serving sentences in places of imprisonment for other crimes may turn out to be telephone scammers or their accomplices.

New types of fraud using cellular communications appear quite often. But the long-existing schemes of deception still operate surprisingly successfully. Even the most cautious owner of a mobile phone can become a victim of a crime such as telephone fraud.

Of course, completely stopping such criminals is very difficult. But the best prevention of telephone fraud, which can significantly reduce crime in this area, is attentiveness, as calm a reaction to calls and messages from unfamiliar phone numbers and maximum awareness of the methods used by such criminals.

Are there any ways not to fall into the network of telephone scammers, and is it possible to legally punish the perpetrators of crimes using mobile communications? To begin, consider the most common and well-known types of telephone fraud today.

"Mom, I'm in trouble! ..."

The most famous and perhaps the most common way of deceiving citizens and appropriating rather large sums of money is requests for help on behalf of friends or relatives. Surely most mobile phone owners have received SMS of similar content at least once.

A more complex scheme is a call from a person who may introduce himself as a police officer or prosecutor. In most cases, the “policeman” reports that one of the relatives became involved in an accident with serious consequences, and in order to avoid a lawsuit and responsibility, a certain amount of money is required to be transferred.

Concern for loved ones, excitement, surprise - criminals who plan to commit fraud count on this. By phone calls or messages about help to scams, they most often manage to deceive the most gullible part of the population - the elderly.

Sometimes scammers simply act at random, calling random subscribers. But there are types of telephone deception when fraudsters purposefully monitor wealthy people, collecting information about them and their friends or relatives. The versions invented by criminals in this case can be incredibly coherent and convincing.To make a fraud victim believe and transfer money to scammers' accounts, telephone criminals use various methods, using high-tech devices, for example, to simulate the voice or process photos of those on whose behalf they are calling.

Call or message to toll numbers

The method of telephone fraud, when a scam victim tries to reach a paid phone number, is rightfully considered the oldest and most proven scheme. The simplest thing is that a person is called from an unfamiliar number, but the call abruptly ends or is dropped after dialing. When trying to call back, the subscriber either receives long beeps in response, or “communicates” with the answering machine turned on. And in that, and in another case, the call is paid, and the money from the account of the curious owner of the mobile phone goes to the accounts of the fraudster.

Fraud with phone numbers for calls or messages that you have to pay for is used very often and in a variety of variations. For example, dishonest people send SMS with a “profitable” offer to send a message in order to receive some small amount “as a gift” to the account. Most often, those who respond to this, not only do not replenish the account, but also sent SMS costs several times more than the amount of the proposed “gift”.

The content of SMS with requests to call the specified number can be very different: a prayer to help a sick child, an offer to meet you, change your mobile phone tariff to a more favorable one, greetings and congratulations from supposedly familiar people, etc. ... Sometimes scammers ask passers-by on the street with a request borrow a cell phone to make a call. After one or several calls, the responsive owner of the mobile phone discovers that the balance is much less.

Top-up another person’s account

Most often we are talking about a request from a "friend" or "child" with a request to replenish the account of the number from which the message came. Another option is a call or SMS from a stranger who “accidentally made a mistake”, replenishing the balance of a mobile phone, put money not on his number, but on the subscriber’s number. And now ask for a “refund” of funds by replenishing the account of his “mobile phone”. Of course, the money with which the “victim of deception” replenishes the balance of an imaginary friend or “inattentive subscriber” immediately goes to the fraudster's account.

Lotteries, prizes, lotteries

No less often, cases of telephone fraud are associated with various “profitable offers” that thousands of citizens receive daily via SMS. Drawing a valuable prize from a mobile operator, bank, representative office of a well-known trademark, announcement of a sale or purchase at an extremely favorable price ... And for all this, it is proposed to “just” deposit a small amount of money into the account indicated in the message. Of course, no one will benefit from this, except for the scammers themselves, who as a result will receive a decent profit from thousands of gullible people who transferred money.

Fraudsters can also get funds from someone else’s cell phone account in other ways. The most common of these are an offer to call back or send a reply message to participate in the prize draw. The number is paid.

It is no less dangerous to follow the indicated links. Instead of raffling prizes and other “promotions”, you can easily get to the scammers website and get a virus that steals not only money, but also all available information from the subscriber’s phone.

Problems with a bank card (account)

The most primitive telephone frauds with bank cards or accounts are designed for the person’s fear of losing money and start approximately the same: SMS from the “bank” comes to the phone or scammers call themselves as their employees. Information can be very unpleasant, for example, that a bank card is blocked or there is a loan debt. In the best case, to clarify the situation, the telephone owner is offered to call the “bank” operator.Those who call back after that get to the paid number and lose a large amount from the mobile phone account.

Much worse consequences occur if, at the request of the “bank”, the owner of the phone informs the fraudsters the card number and its PIN code, the password from the “Personal Account” of the bank’s Internet version, personal data and other information that should be kept secret. In such a situation, money from the bank account of the deceived subscriber really disappears without a trace.

Code in the message

A relatively new telephone fraud is associated with online stores selling virtual content, where you can pay for goods by entering the code sent to the buyer's mobile phone.

Fraudsters create a site with paid access to various tunes, pictures and other services. After that, the telephone numbers of random subscribers are entered as a payer. SMS containing an access code is sent to these numbers, fraudsters can only call recipients. Usually, victims of fraudsters are told that a code was mistakenly sent to their number, and they ask this code to simply dictate. Having learned the access code, scammers “pay” the content on their website by transferring money from a trusting subscriber’s mobile phone account.

The peculiarity of this method of deception is that even if telephone criminals can be found, it is almost impossible to prove the fact of fraud. The only way to protect yourself from such an innovative deception is to get into a similar situation, in no case not tell the callers any numbers and codes received in the message.

How to understand that a fraudster is calling

The methods of "taking money from the population" listed above are among the most common. But this list of scams is far from exhaustive. Every day, new types of telephone fraud are emerging. And yet, all of them have common signs that should at least alert and force a closer look at the received call or message:

• Unknown, hidden or unfamiliar number from which a call is made or a message is sent.
• A special manner of communication. The main weapon of telephone scammers is surprise. “Urgent”, “fast”, “immediately”, “then I will explain”, “need faster” - frequent words and phrases from the vocabulary of such criminals. People who commit telephone fraud behave very confidently, they can press, insist or, on the contrary, try to win over the subscriber by any means. The main task in this case is to catch by surprise, not to give thought to, not to allow the future victim of telephone deception to doubt.
• There are no clear, direct answers to the questions. Literally two or three clarifying or personal questions can put a telephone swindler into a dead end, make you nervous.
• A request or even a requirement to provide any secret information or personal data: the number and PIN of a bank card, personal information, passwords on the site, etc.
• "Free cheese." It is, of course, pleasant to receive news of victory in the competition. Especially if you don’t participate in any competitions. Prizes, advantageous offers, gifts for which you need to "pay extra", "make a deposit" or even somehow transfer a sum of money - one of the signs of telephone fraud.

How to respond to fraud attempts

1. When receiving disturbing calls or messages, the main thing is to try to calm down and not make decisions right away. It’s better to tell the caller right away that you need time to think things through.
2. Golden rule: never, under any circumstances, not disclose to anyone your personal data or confidential information: bank card pin code, account number, username and password from pages on social networks, on Internet sites and more.
3. Ask questions. If the caller introduces himself as a police officer, a bank, a doctor of a polyclinic, an insurance agent, the first thing to do is try to find out as much information as possible about the interlocutor.Simple questions, for example, the name and position of the caller, from which police department, bank or insurance agency they call, the contact information of the head of the organization, how to find the official website, etc. of the real employee will not be confused, and fraudsters will be made nervous.
4. Before reacting to messages or calls from "relatives" or "friends", you need to try to reach the person on whose behalf the message came, or someone from his relatives with whom he may currently be.
5. Do not be too lazy to search on the Internet for information on contests and sweepstakes that are encouraged to participate via SMS mailing. Often deceived participants in such proposals leave warning reviews on the forums.
6. Do not rush to transfer or give money. The requirement to deposit a sum of money, for example, as a security deposit during a prize draw or to replenish a bank’s “control” account, should immediately alert.

Is it possible to punish criminals

From all of the above, a reasonable conclusion can be made: to protect yourself from telephone fraud is quite realistic, being vigilant and adequately evaluating information received from a suspicious number. But if a person nevertheless became a victim of swindlers, does it make sense to seek help from law enforcement agencies, and is there an article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation for telephone fraud?

In our country’s legislation, a telephone scam is considered a crime and falls within the scope of Article 159 of the Criminal Code, that is, “Fraud”. For a citizen who has committed telephone fraud alone, articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation provide for a fine as a punishment, correctional work or, depending on the scale of the crime committed and the damage caused, the actual term of imprisonment is up to two years. For a group of fraudsters, respectively, the amount of fines and the terms of punishment are significantly higher.

Who will help the victim?

It's hard to argue that the best way to protect yourself is to ignore suspicious calls or messages. But if telephone fraud is not stopped, then sooner or later scammers will be able to deceive the more gullible. Therefore, when you try to commit such a crime, you do not need to remain indifferent.

The first thing you should know to stop phone fraud is where to go to prevent criminal activity. The most logical thing is to immediately make a call to the police and talk about a suspicious message (call). It will also not be amiss to report a telephone fraud to the subscription service or technical support service of the cellular company from whose number a message (call) from the scammers was received. If the operator values ​​his own reputation, most likely, a decision will be made to block the suspicious number.

But what if the criminals still managed to commit telephone fraud? Where to go for help?

In a situation where a subscriber has transferred a sum of money to fraudsters within the same mobile network, there is a chance when you quickly contact the operator to return your money. To do this, you need to submit an application for the return of this amount to the subscription department. Unfortunately, if the fraudster’s number belonged to another operator, it is impossible to return the money by transfer.

You should also immediately contact the nearest police station with a statement of a fraud. In it, it will be necessary to describe in detail all the circumstances: when and from which phone number the message came (a call was made), who called, what name, surname, position the fraudster presented, the essence and details of the conversation or message, the information that needed to be reported.

After the application is accepted and registered, a decision is made within 10-30 days to institute criminal proceedings. But there is a high probability that this will be denied for any reason. At the same time, making an application still makes sense. In case of repeated similar cases of fraud or if the swindlers are detained, the fact of filing this application may be taken into account by the investigator and (or) the court.