Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors of Sberbank Stanislav Kuznetsov. Photo: Donat Sorokin/TASS
Telephone scammers make around 8.5 million calls every day. Now they are trying to involve as many family members as possible in “saving money.” Having finished with the victim, they ask her if she has any relatives of hers and convince her to influence them. But some believe that it is law enforcement agencies, security services and the Central Bank of the Russian Federation who ask to transfer money to a “safe account.”
Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors of Sberbank Stanislav Kuznetsov, in an interview with TASS at the Eastern Economic Forum, emphasized that not only ordinary citizens, but also organizations are under threat. In 2023 alone, there were 54 attacks against Sberbank. However, large, systemically important companies often have advanced security systems. Therefore, the attackers focused on insurance companies, small commercial banks and the resources of regional government bodies of the Russian Federation. Unfortunately, some of the attacks were successful.
In addition, Sber’s anti-cyber fraud system recently detected a new scheme. The scammer calls the client on behalf of a bank employee and asks him to install the “Sberbank Support” or “Sber 2.0” application. In reality, these are malicious programs to remotely access the device. Once established, they lost their money and personal information. Therefore, do not agree to install software obtained from others. The bank has an application – SberBank Online. Information about the need to update it will appear in the application itself or they will call you from a 900 number. If you have doubts when calling, it is better to contact the nearest bank branch.
But not all of them are fraudulent “innovations”! After telecom operators were forced to block calls from fake numbers, attackers first switched to calls via instant messengers. And today, virtual PBXs have become their main tool: the proportion of this calling method has already doubled that of instant messaging.
Fraudulent business organizers use dummies to register companies that purchase numbering capacity from mobile phone operators. And then scammers from Ukraine call Russian residents from these numbers.
“By the way, thanks to cooperation with mobile operators, Sber finds out about a scammer’s call in almost 100% of cases,” noted Stanislav Kuznetsov. – If a client uses Sber’s cybersecurity services and follows the bank’s instructions, he receives maximum protection. The “Report Fraud” service is also available on the Sber website and application. Citizens provide phone numbers of scammers (we add them to blacklists, provide addresses of phishing sites) and send them to be blocked.
