For example, they create fake online games or participate in well-known online games themselves, after which they actively offer fake services to bypass restrictions on gambling. Thus, through their children, they gain access to their parents’ bank card data.
Scammers also post fake links and information about how to make money online. This scheme targets teenagers looking for online income. Children are lured with promises of quick cash for completing surveys, tests or “financial games” that essentially act like pyramid schemes: they refer friends and get paid for new members to receive additional bonuses. To do this, scammers register on online forums and communities, gain the trust of children, and then convince them to share their bank card information to transfer money via droppership.
Finally, fraudsters create fake cards in online stores with discounted products (e.g. electronics) and gain access to the bank card.
It is important to understand, says the expert, that if a child’s bank card is linked to a parent’s account, the entire family’s finances are at great risk. In this regard, Shcherbachenko recommended that parents teach their children to be careful with information on the Internet, to consult it in official sources, not to follow suspicious links and to use complex and long passwords. It is also worth enabling two-factor authentication for online social media accounts.
He recalled that in 2023, fraudsters stole 15.8 billion rubles from Russians, and in the first six months of 2024 – 9 billion rubles. “These figures highlight the serious scale of fraud,” the expert concluded.
