Against the backdrop of the conflict between PMC Wagner and the authorities, the number of fraudulent phone calls has increased

Telephone scammers took advantage of the stressful state of citizens against the backdrop of the Wagner PMC mutiny on June 24. Some called for actions in support of PMCs, others – for the transfer of funds to help fighters or investments against the backdrop of a jump in exchange rates. At the same time, in general, major telecom operators did not observe a serious increase in the number of attacks on subscribers during the day. Kommersant’s interlocutors in the market explain that calls, in particular from the territory of Ukraine, were subjected to a “hard block”.

Against the backdrop of Saturday’s conflict between PMC Wagner and the Russian authorities and the wide public outcry that accompanied it, the Russians faced an increase in fraudulent phone calls.

Thus, on June 24, profile Telegram channels began to disseminate information about calls allegedly from representatives of PMCs, who urged citizens to take part in rallies in support of Wagner or transfer funds to its participants.

According to Pavel Kovalenko, Director of the Informzaschita Anti-Fraud Center, increasing fraud attacks in crisis situations is a common practice both in telephone communications and on the Internet: “They can use events and the emotional reactions of people associated with them to collect donations under various pretexts.” Citizens faced a similar surge of fraud against the backdrop of the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine last spring and mobilization in September (see “Kommersant” dated September 21, 2022).

Among the schemes that were used on Saturday were the proposals of fictitious investment projects against the backdrop of an unstable exchange rate, Pavel Kovalenko adds. On the night of June 23-24, banks sharply raised the selling prices of currencies, primarily the dollar and the euro. In the morning, they exceeded exchange rates for the dollar by 10-13 rubles. and 12-14 rubles. for the euro, and the rate was 94.5-97.5 rubles / $ and 104-106.4 rubles / € (see “Kommersant” dated June 24).

This time, according to the interlocutor of “Kommersant” in the telecommunications market, fraud attempts “were severely suppressed.”

“Communication operators blocked the passage of incoming calls from the territory of Ukraine as a whole, which is why telephone fraud began to decline from the middle of the day,” he explains.

To combat fraudulent calls, the authorities use a single platform for verifying telephone calls “Antifraud” of the Main Radio Frequency Center subordinate to Roskomnadzor (see “Kommersant” dated January 18).

In the first quarter, it verified 135 million calls. Last week it became known that telecom operators in the LPR and DPR, as well as Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, are starting to connect to the system (see “Kommersant” of June 23).

Roskomnadzor clarified to Kommersant that “the protection systems against telephone fraud worked as normal.” In order to prevent possible terrorist attacks in Moscow and the Moscow region, a counter-terrorist operation regime was introduced, in connection with which the department warned of a possible restriction of the work of Internet resources. However, until the evening of June 25, serious network failures were not known.

Tele2, VimpelCom and MegaFon also say that the networks of companies on Saturday worked “as usual” and there was no abnormal surge in fraudulent calls.

At the same time, Vimpelcom clarified, Telegram traffic on June 24 increased sharply, one and a half times compared to June 23: “There were no overloads at the Beeline-Telegram junctions due to the presence of a reserve for traffic growth. By Saturday evening, the traffic of the messenger fell to the average daily figures.”

The interlocutor of Kommersant in the industry specified that since the start of the “March of Justice” by PMC “Wagner”, all networks of telecom operators “were transferred to the mode of constant monitoring, if necessary, it was planned to turn off mobile Internet services and other services, but this was not required. The situation with fraudulent calls, he claims, “were able to quickly stop, so only certain subscribers received them.”

Tatiana Isakova, Yulia Tishina