The Central Bank named the top 5 schemes for defrauding pensioners as financial scammers

October 1 is International Day of Older Persons. This holiday is another opportunity to show respect, kindness and care for the older generation. However, for many elderly Russians, the holiday turns out to be “with tears in their eyes.” It’s no secret that a whole army of our elderly compatriots was subjected to impudent telephone and other attacks by financial scammers, and as a result lost their “hard-earned money”. The Central Bank is aware of the fact that pensioners are the most vulnerable audience to the tricks of financial fraudsters, and on the eve of the Day of the Elderly, they named the five most common schemes for their deception. They also gave recommendations on how to avoid losing money as a result of scam attacks.

Scheme No. 1. “Safe account at the Central Bank”

Phone scammers are increasingly posing as employees of the Central Bank, thus trying to gain the trust of the victim. Often, attackers use a two-level attack: first, a person is allegedly called by an employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, talking about a threat to the account and that the money needs to be urgently transferred to a “safe account with the Central Bank”, then the worried person is connected allegedly with an employee of the Central Bank itself. The familiar authoritative name of the regulator acts convincingly, and for greater credibility, the victim can be sent a photo of documents, for example, supposedly an employee’s certificate with the logo and seal of the Bank of Russia. The “employee” convinces the pensioner to transfer money to a “special personal account at the Central Bank” in order to save funds.

CB advice. It must be remembered that the Bank of Russia does not work directly with individuals, does not call itself on its own initiative and does not send out documents. There is no “secure personal account” of an individual in the Bank of Russia, so if you hear something like this from a caller, do not continue the conversation, hang up.

Scheme No. 2. “Counter Credit”

A popular trick of telephone scammers, which, unfortunately, pensioners come across is the requirement to apply for a loan. Here, swindlers can introduce themselves either as a bank employee, or an employee of the Credit Bureau, or someone else, and report that an unknown person is trying to get a loan in the name of a citizen. And in order to cancel it, it is urgent to issue a certain technical “counter credit”. At the same time, scammers try to intimidate and confuse the victim as much as possible, act as “helpers” who allegedly try to save a person. Elderly people often trust this “divorce”, and, frightened by the threat of being in a debt hole, they follow the instructions of scammers by applying for a real loan. Or scammers also trick the victim into logging in to the online bank and issue a loan on her behalf.

CB advice. From October 1, 2022, bank customers will be able to independently set a ban on remote transactions, for example, online loans, or limit the parameters of online transactions – the maximum transaction amount or limit. This possibility is provided for by the instructions of the Bank of Russia, which was registered by the Ministry of Justice of Russia. This opportunity is worth taking advantage of the elderly. If they have established a ban on remote operations, then scammers will not be able to get an online loan or steal money, even if they were able to access the victim’s online banking.

In addition, to prevent fraudulent transactions, since last year, the Central Bank recommended banks to introduce a “second hand” service, when a person can, by agreement with another client (usually a close relative) of the same bank, appoint him as his assistant, who is granted the right to confirm transactions, conducted remotely.

Scheme No. 3. Bank Security Service

A classic of the fraudulent genre: schemes with calls allegedly from the security service of the bank demanding that confidential card details be urgently revealed in order to “save” funds. The same is with calls allegedly from the Pension Fund or the tax authorities with a proposal to receive the due payments or any compensation. Pensioners can also receive calls from intruders who pose as employees of a bank or a cellular company and offer to download a remote access application, ostensibly to “check” the phone. Having gained the ability to control the device, scammers write off money from the account.

CB advice. Remember that there is a certain set of confidential data that you cannot tell anyone – no matter who the caller appears to be: personal data, login and password from the online bank, PIN code from the mobile bank and card, three-digit code on the back of the card and SMS bank codes. If you are contacted proactively, talking about money, hang up, do not enter into a conversation, do not comply with any requirements of the callers, inform your loved ones about a strange call, and if necessary, call back on the official phone number to the organization on behalf of which the call was allegedly made to check information.

Scheme No. 4. “Free ads”

On the Internet, cyber scammers also set up tricks for the elderly, and a scam on free classified sites is especially popular. Attackers confuse the elderly, taking advantage of the fact that pensioners are not deeply immersed in the nuances of new technologies. Fraudsters publish ads for the sale of goods at competitive prices, or monitor the appearance of new ads on the site, get in touch, offer the most tempting conditions, and supposedly for convenience, offer to transfer the dialogue from the official chat on the free ads platform to one of the instant messengers. Inspired by the possibility of a quick transaction, the buyer or seller clicks on the link, and here the scammers can act in different ways: they ask for the card number and secret data supposedly to transfer money, or they send a link to phishing sites disguised, for example, as delivery services. By entering card details on a fake resource, the victim loses money.

CB advice. A dialogue with a potential buyer or seller should be conducted on the official, trusted site for free ads. And in no case do not share any personal information, especially financial. Don’t be fooled by promises to save time: as a result, you run the risk of running out of money.

Scheme No. 5. “Income 300%”

Another way to take money from the elderly is to draw them into financial pyramids. As a rule, illegal organizations that target pensioners call themselves “Mutual Assistance Funds”, “Consumer Societies”, “Consumer Cooperatives” and offer investments in pharmaceuticals, farms, simply in “savings deposits”. They promise high interest, insurance and other mountains of gold. In reality, a person simply loses his invested funds, and a structure with a “big name” after a while simply disappears with the money of gullible clients.

CB advice. It is necessary to explain to elderly relatives that money can be trusted only to legal organizations that have a license from the Bank of Russia or are included in state registers. You can check the legitimacy of the company’s work on the website of the Central Bank or in its application. In addition, it is imperative to make sure that the organization is not on the warning list of companies with identified signs of illegal activity, which has also been published on the Bank of Russia website since last summer. Now the list contains almost 7 thousand organizations, it is updated daily.

Dmitry Ibragimov, Deputy Head of the Information Security Department of the Main Directorate of the Bank of Russia for the Central Federal District, comments:

“The main tool that scammers use when communicating with older people is social engineering. Attackers confuse victims, rush, scare, or promise benefits, and then either fish out confidential data for further theft of funds, or force people to transfer money to scammers’ accounts themselves. In addition, swindlers aimed at saving citizens draw pensioners into financial pyramids. Education and financial literacy play an important role in financial security for older people. The Bank of Russia conducts free online financial literacy classes for citizens of pre-retirement and retirement age in all regions of the Russian Federation. The purpose of the classes is to increase the level of financial literacy among pensioners, to overcome uncertainty and misunderstanding of modern financial technologies.”