The Social Fund of Russia published a memo on protection against fraudsters

Keep your head in the cold, and personal data under lock and key

With the advent of spring in Russia, scammers become more active. With the advent of social Internet resources, the actions of criminals have become more sophisticated. The Social Fund of Russia reminded citizens of the rules for protecting personal data from leakage. We fix them in the MK material so as not to fall into the clutches of intruders.

Since January 1, 2023, the Pension Fund and the Social Insurance Fund have merged. The new structure is called the Social Fund of Russia. The official resource of the Social Fund – https://sfr.gov.ru/. All materials about social support of citizens, addresses of offices and contacts for communication are published here. Any other resources or copies of the official site are fake, do not go there.

Where do scammers come from

Most often, attackers use the usual means of communication: a phone call, SMS, instant messenger or social networks. A common situation: a dishonest character calls a citizen and introduces himself as an employee of the Social Fund. Following is an attempt to ingratiate himself and lure out personal data or money.

Savvy talkers deftly refer to articles and laws related to payments, and promise mountains of gold to the victim. In response to such requests, you must immediately stop the conversation – most likely, scammers have contacted you.

Real employees of the Social Fund never ask for your full name, passport details, SNILS, bank card number, PIN code or passwords from your personal account. Moreover, this data is in principle confidential, and it may not be safe to share it. Such conversations should not be continued either in SMS messages or in any other form of communication on the Internet. The ideal solution is to terminate the interaction and subsequently block suspicious numbers and contacts.

Keep out uninvited guests

Particularly enterprising criminals often take drastic measures. It happens that decently dressed people knock on the door of a person who politely say: “We are from the Social Fund.” Further, the pseudo-employees offer to resolve on the spot the issues that suddenly arise in a potential victim related to pensions or other social benefits.

And this is another reason to be wary. The current specialists of the Social Fund of Russia do not go door-to-door offering any services on pension issues, and attackers are standing on your doorstep. We recommend that you do not open the door and do not engage in dialogue with them. It is important not to forget: the services of the Social Fund are provided in client services or online through the State Services portal, and all the necessary information is available on the official website of the fund. All services are provided free of charge, but the payments due to citizens are provided either after submitting an application, or automatically based on the data of the fund.

The code word will enhance your security

As long as you do not disclose your sensitive data, there is no threat. The Social Fund strongly advises citizens not to trust calls and messages from dubious numbers. If you suspect that you have been contacted by an intruder, end the conversation immediately.

A code word can help protect against fraudsters, which will allow you to receive consultations through the Unified Contact Center and telephones of the regional branches of the Social Fund. With it, you can clarify the amount of pensions and social benefits, check your personal account or balance of maternity capital without a personal visit to the office. You can set the code word in the fund’s client service. This can be any secret word or question-answer, which will be used to identify the user.

The fund’s contact center has three lines. At the first stage, the virtual assistant provides information on typical requests. For detailed information, the call is transferred to the employee of the second line. And more detailed consultations are carried out by operators of the third line. They identify the identity of the caller with the help of a code word and provide the necessary information.