What phone numbers are scammers using? Gifts to the studio

What to do

“Ah, it's not difficult to deceive me! I'm glad to be deceived myself! " - once exclaimed the great classic. But to the people who fell victim swindler, it doesn't make it any easier. They are completely genuinely perplexed: "How could I be so gullible?" They scold the present time, the decline of morals, the government. They curse evil fate and almost immediately, with some manic stubbornness, fall for the bait of another Ostap Bender. Sometimes giving him the last money saved up for a "rainy day". So how can you avoid being in a similar situation? How to calculate in a timely manner swindler?

Instructions

Remember that any scammer is a subtle psychologist. He unmistakably recognizes the "weak point" of a potential victim. He knows how to "drive up" to a lonely, trusting pensioner, how to attract the attention of a naive married couple, how to become a best friend and get into the trust of some "unrecognized" with exorbitant aplomb. And for this, he first of all needs information about him. Therefore, if a casual acquaintance is trying to "spin" you into a frank conversation, to find out as much as possible about you, this is already a reason to be wary and carefully evaluate your opponent. Ask yourself a simple one: "Why does he need this at all?" And resist the temptation to answer: "This is because I am smart, interesting and talented!", "This is because I am so prominent!" Here, vigilance will definitely not hurt.

If you are offered (of course, on the most profitable and exclusive ones!) Some kind of money deal or in a "financial pyramid" - think not three, but thirty-three times! Especially if at the same time they promise "mountains of gold" and money in sacks. This is almost certainly a real scam. Remember the old wise rule: free cheese is only in a mousetrap. And in no case be afraid to offend a “good person” with your refusal! If he is really good, he will understand everything correctly and will not be offended. If a swindler - so he needs it.

More often remember the sensational ones with "MMM", "Khoper-Invest", "Tibet" and other companies, to which gullible fellow citizens entrusted their considerable savings. This will help you to protect yourself from bitter disappointment when another "ringing nightingale" appears on your doorstep, promising a fabulously profitable profit.

What methods are used by phone scammers

If you receive an SMS of questionable content, do not rush to transfer money immediately. Don't be surprised if you can't get through to the person who sent you asking for help. This is due to the fact that the scammers are quite well equipped technically and use special plugs that do not give a call signal to the pass telephone.

It is better to protect yourself in advance by agreeing with your family about any secret details: words, phrases, etc., which you will use if you really need help. Otherwise, don't react.

Try not to respond to this kind of SMS. In case the thirst for justice rages in your blood,. True, it is not at all a fact that they will consider it, because there is no corpus delicti - you did not give the money.

As for the calls to the phone with the story that this is an investigator, and your relative knocked down someone and urgently needs money, you need to reason in such a situation very soberly. Even if the caller's voice may be very similar to yours. Try to get through to him and find out if everything is in order. Do not hesitate and loved ones with whom he may be near. After all, you are trying to find out the truth.

Calls from phone scammers usually take place at night. This is due to the fact that so they are trying to confuse you, because when awake a person cannot think soberly. So pull yourself together and don't panic.

What to do

If you understand that the SMS is fake, the only thing you can do is call your cellular operator and inform him about the fraud and the number from which you received the message. As a rule, the operator blocks such a subscriber.

In a more complicated situation, for example, if you have transferred money, you will need to write a statement to the operator asking for a refund. True, you can only count on reimbursement of lost funds if it was carried out within one network.

In case they call you and require a ride to a certain amount, in order to save a relative from trouble, you need to immediately hang up. Remember that no one will ask you for a bribe, especially over the phone.

Situations when fraudsters lured out a fairly large amount are not uncommon. Gullible retirees are usually the victims. In this situation, you do not need to hesitate, but immediately go to the police.

Since its inception, the mobile messaging service (SMS) has gained immense popularity due to its convenience, confidentiality and speed of information transfer. However, this type of messages fell in love not only with users and organizations, but also with all sorts of fraudsters who tirelessly invent more and more new ways of taking money using SMS from overly gullible citizens.

Instructions

There are a lot of ways to deceive using SMS nowadays. It is difficult to describe all of them, as well as the algorithm of actions of the recipient of such messages within one article. But you can give general recommendations, which, however, in each case will be very effective. First of all, if you receive a suspicious message from an unknown number, which in one way or another prompts you to transfer money to coordinates unknown to you, you should immediately understand that this is a fraudster. From whatever name he wrote: from a relative, bank, mobile operator, etc.

It is necessary to be very vigilant before sending SMS to short numbers. At the same time, you should not disclose your personal data, including details and codes of bank cards (real bank employees will never ask you for a pin code or a three-digit number), and also be careful when following the links contained in SMS from short numbers.

Large cellular operators are trying to protect their consumers from SMS scams. As a rule, they provide a free service for SMS messages (receiving and sending) to short numbers, or they allow you to find out the exact cost of an SMS to a short number before sending it. Take advantage of these services. Also, if your phone is connected to the Internet, you need to install a good antivirus program on it and monitor the constant relevance of its virus databases with regular updates.

If, despite all the warnings described above, you still become a victim of SMS scams, you need to notify your mobile operator, as well as the short number provider (you can find out who the provider is on the corporate website of the cellular operator) about the fact of fraud and illegal debiting of funds from accounts, if it was done using a short number; or contact the police with a statement if unknown persons require you to transfer money, posing as bank employees, relatives, etc.

Telephone fraud emerged almost simultaneously with the proliferation of home telephones. Despite the fact that they have known about him for a long time, the number of his victims is growing every year. This is due to the growth of telephone users, now mobile. Calls to home numbers are rare today, which is not the case with cell phones.

Features of fraud

Telephone fraud involves the use of a mobile, less often a home phone to deceive gullible citizens in order to obtain money. Often, several persons are involved in this type of fraud, some of whom may even serve their sentences in correctional institutions.

Typically, the victims of phone scams are teenagers and retirees.

Signs of fraud:

The number from which you received the SMS or the call is not familiar to you.
The reason for the call is very unusual, and the problem needs to be solved almost this minute.
To resolve the situation, you need to transfer money or dial a special code, provide certain personal information, transfer money.

Basic schemes

In many cases, the crime is carried out according to the following schemes:

Poor relative. The most common scheme that works on both mobile and home phones. When you answer the call, the other person says that he is your relative and tells the story of how he fell into the hands of the police for a crime. After that, another person can pick up the phone, introduce himself as a police officer and state his requirements in exchange for a certain amount of money. Often money needs to be brought to a certain place or transferred through a person, since the valiant servant of the law himself is afraid of getting caught when receiving a bribe. As soon as the victim agrees to give the money, she is told the address where to bring the funds. After arriving at the place, the address can be changed, and the victim herself can be observed in order to exclude the involvement of the police.
Lucky winner.The radio presenter contacts you and informs you that you have won a large prize in a lottery organized by the radio company with the participation of your mobile operator. To receive your prize, you need to call the following number. You call back, and they tell you about the lottery itself, ask for the last name, first name and patronymic, date of birth. After that, it turns out that in order to receive the prize, you need to register and receive a unique winner number. But for this, it is important to replenish your account by activating the card for express payment for a certain amount. At the same time, for activation, you need to inform the prize department of the card codes, but you cannot activate them yourself, oddly enough.
Help. You receive a message with a request to replenish the number indicated in it. The sender is signed by one of the relatives or friends. Alternatively, the message may contain a request to call the number back, since the sender has problems. The number itself may be chargeable.
An error occurred while transferring funds. You receive a message that a certain amount of money has been credited to you using the mobile money transfer service. After some time, a person calls you and says that he mistakenly transferred money to your number and asks to return it. With the check issued during the transfer, the scammers turn to the operator. Based on the application, the top-up amount is debited from your balance.
Service activation. You receive an offer to connect a profitable service. But for this you need to dial a combination code for activation. This is actually a combination for transferring funds.

New schemes

Recently, the following types of telephone fraud have been practiced:

Winning machine. The SMS notification is about winning a car. To clarify the details, you need to visit the website or call the number. Then you are told that in order to verify the authenticity of the number, you need to top up the balance by some amount, and then dial a special code to verify the account. The money is immediately transferred to the scammers' account.
Theft of bank details... You receive a message stating that your bank card is blocked. To unblock you need to dial the number indicated in the message. They tell you the tale of a server crash. Then they ask to provide the card number and its pin-code.

A responsibility

Opening a phone fraud case is not easy.

If the amount for the transfer was not announced in a conversation or message, a strong incentive was not given to induce action, and the victim himself made a decision, then he is also responsible for his actions.

Again, if instructions were received, but the victim did not take action and did not suffer damage, then only an attempted crime is considered. And only in the case of major damage or in the presence of several criminals, punishment can follow.

If the victim not only received instructions to transfer the announced amount of money, but also gave them, then the case will be considered under article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The punishment depends on the amount of damage. The maximum sentence is 10 years, and a fine of up to 1,000,000 rubles is also provided.

And again, the damage must be at least 1,000 rubles. Otherwise, the case is considered under the Code of Administrative Offenses - Article 7.27. In this case, the crime is classified as petty theft.

Where to contact?

When you receive calls or suspicious messages, you must contact the nearest police station or fill out an application on the website of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation. Department "K" is engaged in such crimes.

The application must indicate:

Who called you and what number they called you from.
What questions were asked, what was the reason for the call.
What amount was demanded.

It is advisable to get a printout of incoming calls from the operator's company and attach it to the application.

If you managed to transfer money to the attacker, you must also file a civil claim. Only then can the fraudsters be ordered to compensate for the damages in court.

How to avoid?

In order not to lose your money, pay attention to the following recommendations:

Don't make quick decisions. Remember that the main goal of criminals is to confuse you and not give you time to think about the situation.
Be sure to check the information provided to you. In the case of relatives, call their phones or contact the people around them or employees. If we are talking about an operator or a bank, call the hot number. Bank numbers are usually indicated on plastic cards.
Do not give criminals personal information, data of various cards.
In no case do not call back to unfamiliar numbers and do not enter the proposed suspicious codes.

Video: Phone Fraud

We can learn more about some of the telephone fraud schemes in a short video:

Phone fraud is considered one of the most common types of fraud. In order not to fall for the tricks of scammers, you need to soberly assess the situation, check the information you received and contact the nearest police station.

Phone fraud is a new modern type of swindler who, using a landline or mobile phone, lure money out of people and almost always go completely unpunished.

This type of crime is quite lucrative and, very importantly, is currently not punishable by the Criminal Code. After all, today, acquiring a new phone number for scams is not difficult, while maintaining complete anonymity.

Invisible criminal

Modern computers and software allow law enforcement agencies to track with high accuracy the place of sending an SMS message or an outgoing call, but scammers also know about this.

That is why phone fraud, in most cases, occurs in crowded places - train stations, markets, which makes it impossible to determine exactly who made the call or sent the message.

Quite often, calls come from other regions of the country. There were even recorded cases when fraudsters called from places of detention, after which they gave instructions on how to receive money to their accomplices in the wild.

What is special about phone scams

There are a lot of fraudulent methods using the phone, but having at least general information about their scheme, you can easily avoid falling into the hook of scammers.

So, here are the 11 most common phone scams.

"Save Mommy!" This scheme is not new. She was talked about a lot in the news and on the net, but still many people fall for this trick. The scheme is based on human psychology. In the middle of the night, the call, you answer and hear a tear-stained voice: "Mommy (daddy) save me, I beat a man (hit him in a car), I'm talking from a policeman's phone, now I'll give him a phone." Then a pseudo-policeman communicates with you, who says that it is possible to come to an agreement while there is no boss, but there is very little time and after 30 minutes nothing can be done. Asks to transfer a certain amount of money to the specified account. This is where the maternal instinct awakens, especially in a sleepy person at 2 am.
Expensive flirting. They call and hang up on your number, after you called back it turned out that the person simply made a wrong number. But this unknown person turns out to be a girl with a bewitching voice, who doesn't mind talking to you further. Only the number turns out to be paid with an expensive per minute rate. The same can be done with SMS. The message comes: "Kitty, I have no money on my balance, call back to the number ... Your bunny." Then it turns out that the number was paid.
Internet offers. A pseudo-entrepreneur leases a paid number and places tempting ads on the network - a cheap sale of a car, an apartment in the city center, a promotion on an iPhone for half the price, etc. The client calls, and he is asked to wait a couple of minutes. Then they pick up the phone and ask to stay on the line until the product is found in the database, drag on and say that the product has, unfortunately, been sold 5 minutes ago. Well, the number, as usual, is paid, and for 10 minutes of your waiting, the amount will run up a lot.
Paid code. We have all heard about the special services of mobile communication companies by entering special codes into the phone, for example, transferring funds to the balance of another subscriber, calling at the expense of the subscriber. But many of us, unfortunately, do not remember these codes by heart, or even do not know them at all, because we have never used them. This is what the swindlers are using. They call from a hidden number and say that they are representatives of the technical department of a mobile company and they need to check the performance of the subscriber's number. To do this, you are asked to dial a certain code on your phone. After a code is typed by an uninformed person, the money goes to the swindlers' account.
SIM card problems. A person receives a call from a pseudo cellular operator. They say that you have some kind of problem with the number. To correct them, they are asked to send some text to a specific number. As it turns out later, the number is paid.
Kind-hearted citizen... A stranger comes up on the street and begins to tell a tearful story that his mother is in the hospital, he needs to call his brother, and the battery runs out. You can think of a thousand such stories per hour. The kind-hearted "you" is trying to get into the position of the unfortunate and give him a call. If this person turns out to be a swindler, then the dialed number, of course, turns out to be paid, and he or his accomplice is the owner of this number. In one day, such frauds bring fraudsters several thousand rubles.
Transferring money by mistake. A small amount of money is transferred to your phone balance, for example, 200 rubles. A moment later, the fraudster calls and says that he mistakenly replenished your account with 2,000 rubles and very much asks for them to be returned by dialing a certain combination of numbers on the phone. If you accidentally get confused with the number of zeros, the scammers will get what they wanted. Such scams are usually applied to older people, hoping for their honesty and poor eyesight.
Search for a sucker. Fraudsters make a call on behalf of the operator's technical support service and say that you have used unauthorized roaming without notifying the operator, and now you are fined. You must purchase several top-up cards and dictate the card codes to the operator. This is indeed a scam for a sucker, but nevertheless, in 2019 alone, more than 1,500 successful such scams were recorded in Russia.
Blocked credit card. You will receive an SMS notification on your phone that your credit card is blocked. They write to you that this case is fixable and to unblock it, you need to make a call to a sort of free number. After you called the specified number, the scammers say that an unexpected server failure occurred and now your card number and PIN code are required to unblock. They reassure you that the card is allegedly in your possession, which means that without it no one can withdraw money, but this is not so. With modern online banking support services, money can be easily withdrawn to another account, knowing only the data that you were trying to find out.

Winning a prize. Also not new, but until today a working scheme. The subscriber receives a call, as it were, from an operator or radio station that he became the winner of the competition and won an expensive prize - a telephone, TV, car. Then they may offer to send an SMS to a specific number for registering a prize, or provide the details of any of your cards to receive monetary compensation for the prize. In the first case, the number will turn out to be a paid one and everything that was there will be lost from your mobile account, or even credit funds. In the second case, your bank card will be wrapped to the skin.
Legal scam. As an example, we can cite TV programs where you need to guess a word, for example, you should guess a pet from the word "dog_ka", and even prompts. And someone sits and thinks that in an hour half of Russia cannot guess a word, and we smart ones will call now and win money. Such calls are very expensive, and even the operator will have to wait more than one minute for the answer.

Precautionary measures

As we have seen, there are a lot of phone fraud schemes and it is not possible to describe them all. But now we know the main thing - the principle of their fraudulent schemes. This will help us to be prepared and protect ourselves from another scam attack.

It takes a little to achieve the result, just adhere to some rules:

Don't transfer money to numbers you don't know. Remember: mobile operators never hold promotions that require the transfer of an amount from one phone to another.
Carefully study the numbers from which you received a message or an incoming call with any request. Remember: scammers often use the service of sending messages over the Internet and can sign with any name.
Absolutely all information that was received from an unknown number needs to be carefully checked, even if it was presented as a telecom operator or a policeman. Try to find the number you called from over the Internet. Perhaps someone on the forum writes that they have already encountered this number, and they turned out to be scammers.
Do not make hasty operations with the account, especially for the transfer of funds, take a break and assess the situation with common sense. Check with your cellular operator for details.
Never tell anyone your passport details, bank card numbers and other confidential information in a telephone conversation. Operators will never run prize drawings where such data is required.
When they call and introduce themselves as employees of the bank services, ask them a couple of leading questions - the branch number, actual address, branch contact numbers and others. Then check all the data on the official source of the bank.
Do not post your income and account and phone numbers on social networks. This information can be captured by fraudsters, and such knowledge will allow them to prepare in advance a scheme against you, which may turn out to be fully operational.
Do not let third parties use your SIM card.
Do not let strangers call from your phone. If a person really needs help, warn him that after the call you will immediately check the phone balance. If these are swindlers, then this approach will certainly scare them away.
Never draw up a sim card for someone else. Since according to the documents, you will be responsible for its legal use.
Check your balance every day to avoid losing money.
If an attempt has been made against you, be sure to contact the police and your mobile operator. This will block criminal activities in advance.

You can check your phone number for fraud

The three leading mobile operators in Russia - Megafon, Beeline and MTS practically on the same day announced the start of a campaign against telephone fraudsters who in various ways lure and extort money from mobile subscribers. Statistics show that this is done mainly with the help of fictitious SMS messages, since during a telephone conversation a potential victim may ask a number of leading questions that significantly complicate the scam, or even doom it to failure.

Operator research shows that telephone frauds turnover is about $ 40.5 million per year.

AT 96% In all cases, "content delivery services" are stipulated, which offer to purchase pictures, music, etc. for a small fee. To do this, ask to send a confirmation by SMS to a short number. In fact, the fee turns out to be several times higher, but the subscriber never gets what he wants.

Operations of cellular operators

Mobile operators are aware of multi-million dollar losses, so they provide their subscribers with several services that will not allow you to pay for unnecessary services.

At the end of winter, the Beeline operator introduced a user site www.safe.beeline.ru, on the pages of which the most key schemes of telephone fraud and how to counter them are described. You can also download an Excel document on the site, which shows the prices of SMS messages to short numbers that are issued to content services so that subscribers can pay for the services used. Also, the operator provided the service "Black and White List", with which you can block access to your chosen content services. The service is activated by calling a free number 0858 .
The operator MTS has moved a little further and introduced the "Infocontent" service. With its help, you can not only find out the cost of a message to a short number, but also the name of the provider providing the service, as well as its contact numbers and actual address. To obtain information, simply send a question mark "?" to the short number you are interested in. Also, by dialing * 152 #, you can find out about the subscriptions for which you are issued. Here you can refuse them.
Mobile operator Megafon offers its subscribers the “Mobile Price” service. It allows you to find out the prices for sending messages to short numbers of content service providers. There is also a Stop Content service that blocks requests for mobile subscriptions and spam messages. You can find out about the service, enable or disable it by dialing the combination * 526 #.

Online services

The Internet space also did not stay away from the problem and offers its own options.

For example, tracking the phone number of criminals if it has already been caught by a vigilant user of a scam.

kodtelefona.ru- a service for obtaining information about a specific phone number code. The phone number is entered in an international format. The service shows the operator's country, region, the name of the company providing communication services, the location address and the official website.
kody.su- another service for determining the phone number code, operator country, region, specific city and information about the communication company.
smsnumbers.ru - a service for obtaining information about short numbers that are used by providers of content products to pay for services by communication subscribers. The database contains over 500 known short numbers. For each number there is information about the company providing the service - its name, location address, contact numbers and website address, as well as a description of the services that are provided by this short number.
stoimost-sms.ru Is another online service for determining the cost of sending a message to short numbers. Also indicates information about the company providing the service, country, region and address.
sms-price.ru - online check of the real cost of making a call or sending an SMS message to short numbers.

It turned out to be a hoax

Pensioner Lidia Pavlovna from Ryazan wanted to get a loan for treatment of kidney failure. A neighbor helped find a company on the Internet that offers easily accessible consumer loans to the public. The conditions for obtaining required a minimum package of documents, the interest rate is attractively low.

It was only required to call the indicated number to complete the application. Lydia Pavlovna dialed the number without hesitation. A pleasant voice on the other end of the line answered immediately and began to clarify the passport data. Between the conversation, the manager asked for the card number to which credit funds could be transferred, and then the CVV code of the card. Not knowing what it was, the pensioner dictated all the numbers on the card. After a long conversation, the manager said that Lydia Pavlovna's application was approved and the money would be credited to the card within 2 days. Two days later, inserting the card into an ATM, Lydia Pavlovna discovered that 15,000 rubles were missing on her balance sheet - her monthly pension, and after another 3 days she received a bill for telephone calls in the amount of 25,560 rubles.

How to proceed

Immediately contact the Ministry of Internal Affairs at the place of residence. It is worth remembering that this investigation, depending on the severity of the fraud committed against you, may be entrusted to both public security officers and the criminal investigation department or the Department of Economic Crimes.

When filing an application, you need to remember the maximum number of details that will help the investigation - the phone number of the callers; short numbers of sent and sent messages; bank accounts and card numbers to which money was requested to be transferred; the numbers that were asked to be entered at the ATM, they are the account number of the scammers.

You should also report the fraudsters' numbers to your mobile operator so that they can be blacklisted to prevent further scams.

Provided punishment

According to Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, a person prosecuted for fraud may be punished by the following measures:

If there is only one attacker:
- fine up to 120,000 rubles;
- community service for up to 180,000 hours;
- correctional labor up to 1 year;
- arrest of a person for up to 4 months;
- imprisonment up to 2 years.
Group fraud:
- fine of up to 300,000 rubles;
- community service on term 180-240 thousand hours;
- corrective labor up to 2 years;
- depriving malefactors of the will for a period up to 5 years.
Group:
- fine size up to 1 million rubles;
- imprisonment 6-10 years old.

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