The economist gave a simple advice about phone scam calls

Over the past year, the number of calls from unknown numbers has grown exponentially, becoming, in fact, a form of psychological terror. The inexperienced layman is unable to recognize the nature of each of them, but in general it is either aggressive spam or an attempt at fraud. Phone scammers are resorting to new tricks: for example, they have become more likely to refer to the Central Bank, which allegedly approved a loan application. This cannot be by definition: the regulator does not deal with such things.

According to the statistics of the Central Bank, the volume of monetary losses of Russian citizens from telephone fraud in 2022 amounted to 14.2 billion rubles, and there were 877 thousand cases of theft of funds from bank accounts.

But the most depressing circumstance is something else: from year to year, the share of the return to the population of their funds becomes more and more symbolic. That is, theft means irretrievable loss.

In 2022, banks returned to customers 618.4 million rubles, or 4.4% of the total volume (in 2021, the figure was 6.8% or 920 million rubles). Such a low level of compensation is associated with the active use of social engineering methods, when people voluntarily transfer their money to third parties or disclose bank details.

The average amount of one fraudulent transaction increased by 29.8%, to 15.3 thousand rubles. Today, this kind of activity is recorded mainly in the field of remote banking services – mobile and Internet banking (the total amount of losses here is 9.3 billion rubles).

The Central Bank initiated the blocking of more than 756,000 fraudulent phone numbers in 2022, more than four times more than a year earlier. Among other countermeasures, the regulator recommends that citizens establish a self-prohibition on the issuance of loans, as well as on online transactions, or limit their parameters – the maximum amount for one transaction or a limit for a certain period of time.

The website of the Central Bank lists a list of typical fraudulent schemes. Among them are scenarios when telephone intruders: pretend to be employees of the Central Bank (or even the FSB) and report “doubtful transactions” on an account or card, offering to verify bank data; ask to transfer funds to a special “protected” account of the Central Bank; convince to take out a loan; they promise to help with the compensation of stolen money – for this, the client must fill out a form with personal and financial data.

“There is the only true and effective method of counteraction: if an “employee” of a bank or the police called you and for “security reasons” asked you to share, say, a secret PIN code, hang up immediately,” says financial analyst Sergey Drozdov. – Do not tempt fate, get involved in a conversation. It is better to contact your credit institution a little later and ask what is the matter. The bank itself will not bother you unless you have overdue the loan for a large amount. It’s an elementary truth; it is strange that tens, hundreds of thousands of people become victims of such scams every year.

The essence of what phone scammers do does not change, argues Mikhail Belyaev, Ph. But the legend and the specific methods are different each time: either it’s a request to send a QR code to cancel an “unauthorized operation,” or a car accident, or an approved loan, or a big win in the lottery.

“The first recommendation is that you don’t need to tell them anything: you either immediately end the conversation, or limit yourself to the phrase:“ Thank you, I don’t need your services, ”says Belyaev. — It must be clearly understood that these people use certain techniques of suggestion. They should also not be rude, rude, because they will quickly calculate you by the number and take revenge in some sophisticated way.

Secondly, if possible, do not keep large amounts on a debit card. Except on deposit.

Thirdly, if you want to insure your funds, then (in accordance with Article 9 of the federal law “On the National Payment System”) you should conclude an agreement with the bank, according to which you will receive SMS notifications about each transaction. This service is quite inexpensive. When you see that an unauthorized debiting of money from the card has occurred, you must notify the bank about this within 24 hours. He, in turn, will conduct his own investigation, and if the fact of fraud is confirmed, the amount will be restored to you in the same amount.

Meanwhile, the Central Bank has launched a training website to combat pyramid schemes and online scams. This resource called Rublerost imitates various fraudulent projects. According to the regulator, it contains the most frequently used tricks, familiarization with which will help you not to fall for the hook of scammers who promise high income with minimal effort.