Methods of deception: how not to become a victim of scammers?

Telephone fraud has become a nationwide problem in our country in recent years. According to the Deputy Board of Sberbank Stanislav Kuznetsov at a meeting of the Federation Council Commission on Information Policy, from 6 to 7 million suspicious calls are noted daily. He cited a kind of "top 3" telephone fraud schemes. These are: obtaining data by deception to steal an account on the Gosuslugi portal, communicating in instant messengers on behalf of the head, as well as fake calls from law enforcement agencies and banks.

According to Stanislav Kuznetsov, last year fraudsters managed to deceive Russians for 295 billion rubles. This year, in the first quarter, the amount of losses of our citizens amounted to about 80 billion. The restrictions imposed by banks on money transfers are far from always effective: fraudsters use supposedly "official" couriers to receive funds. The scope of the swindlers' activities prompted the State Duma to adopt a federal law to protect citizens from fraudsters. It entered into force on June 1 this year.

Of course, both law enforcement and banking institutions are responsible for combating telephone fraud. But many depend on the citizens themselves. That is why the other day the security forces directly appealed to the population, publishing a kind of memo in news agencies.

So, according to police experts, telephone scammers give the victim only 40 minutes to get a loan from a bank. In the event that a person does not get in touch for a long time, then the criminals themselves call him again. There are swindlers according to a well-thought-out scenario. For example, telephone scammers explain to the victim what to do when they cannot stay in touch with him when the future victim goes to the bank. In that case, they literally force the citizen to set a timer for 40 minutes.

This time period is not chosen by chance. Psychologists argue that without constant control by fraudsters, for more time a person can come to his senses and contact the police. Therefore, the swindler convinces the victim that if he does not have time to leave the bank in 40 minutes and call on his own, then he will be obliged to get in touch himself. In addition, in order not to attract the attention of others, telephone scammers demand to contact them with "you."

As psychologist Galina Palyokha replied in one of her interviews, telephone scammers manipulate the emotional reactions of their victims. According to her, they "put" the objects of their manipulations on the "emotional needle" that blocks rational thinking.

First of all, they speak to the victims in the "language of professionals," using terms and official names from the slang of bank and law enforcement officials. In conversation, scammers evoke emotions of fear, guilt, shame and greed. The fact is that a person experiencing strong emotions becomes less rational. Psychologists argue that by starting a conversation with a telephone fraudster, a person risks falling under his influence. Moreover, the victims of fraudsters are not only people with weak critical thinking.

The emotions that telephone scammers evoke in their victims deserve detailed consideration. So, in addition to the usual sense of injustice and greed for everyone (someone is trying to steal my money), swindlers always try to form a sense of guilt in the victim. The phrases that are used for this are familiar to almost every Russian: "We spent time on you!" Similarly, officials and store sellers communicated with customers. The goal pursued by the scammers is simply formulated: they need to make the interlocutor feel obliged to those who have spent a lot of time and effort to help him. If a person internally agrees with this, he voluntarily allows attackers to manipulate himself.

The second emotion that scammers inspire is a feeling of fear, or, more precisely, fear of being late. To do this, the scammers strongly demand a decision as quickly as possible. The arguments sound very emotional: "Your money is already being stolen," "Dozens of microloans are being issued in your name right now." Attackers easily put a person into a state of panic, thereby forcing them to make an ill-conceived, spontaneous decision.

Pensioners were and remain the main target of telephone scammers. Older people are often too open and trusting. In addition, they remain human. Raised in an era when everyone was considered "friend, comrade and brother." The middle-aged generation and young people are much more cynical, and therefore distrustful. In addition, young people have access to the information flows of the Internet, and therefore faster learn about new scenarios of fraud. They do not easily develop guilt, so young people can fight back or ignore them.

Nevertheless, even the most cautious and strong-willed person is difficult to resist fraudsters without resorting to the help of the state. That is why a number of laws have recently been adopted against telephone scammers. For example, a ban on the use of foreign messengers when communicating with citizens by employees of government agencies, banks and telecom operators came into force. Now scammers, calling with the help of a messenger, will no longer be able to impersonate a police officer or a bank.

In addition, during a telephone conversation, messages with an access code to the State Services portal are no longer sent. Also, the site has launched a "life situation" service. It is intended as for those who have already encountered swindlers. Here is a set of measures to protect against fraudsters: self-blocking for loans, the ability to check your credit history, issued SIM cards, information about a suspicious call and file a complaint about a malicious resource. Particular attention on the portal is paid to the instructions. For example, a user of "State Services" can find out how to act in case of transferring a password to fraudsters. Also, within the framework of the "Life Situation" service, the user has access to a catalog and a description of the most common fraud schemes.

This is not limited to measures against fraudsters. Starting from August 1, the possibility of self-blocking for SMS mailing will be introduced. Starting from September 1, you can independently refuse spam calls. And now you can only transfer your SIM card to close relatives. But that is certainly not enough.

So, last year, the Ministry of Internal Affairs noted the emergence of a new type of telephone fraud aimed at holders of salary cards. To deceive Russians, attackers send fake SMS messages about forced deductions from wages. Swindlers play on a sense of patriotism. They send fake bank notices in which they report allegedly upcoming mandatory deductions from wages in favor of a special operation on the basis of a non-existent order of the Government.

Experts warn that recently the risks of active use of artificial intelligence to deceive protection technologies have seriously increased. Today, neural networks "know how" to extremely plausibly imitate not only a person's voice, but also his video image. Therefore, Russians should prepare for the wave of not only calls from fake relatives and chiefs, but also videos asking for money transfers allegedly from the closest people.

Only strict adherence to the law can protect against such types of fraud. It must be remembered that any salary deduction for political reasons is illegal. And relatives, having heard allegedly their request for financial assistance, it is better to call back on their own.