Fraudsters have come up with a new scheme for stealing accounts on State Services using children, the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs reported. First, the attackers, disguised as teachers, call parents supposedly to update the electronic journal and warn that after this they will call the child. In a conversation with children, scammers lure out a code from an SMS, with which they then steal access to an account on the State Services portal. For credibility, they use data from real school employees, deepfake technologies, and fake numbers.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs has identified a new fraudulent scheme for stealing accounts on State Services, in which scammers involve children. This was reported in the Office of the Agency for Organizing the Combating the Illegal Use of Information and Communication Technologies.
According to the new scheme, the attackers first call parents under the pretext of updating the electronic journal, student lists, or the student’s profile in Sferum. In this case, the scammers pose as heads of educational organizations or teachers. After that they call the children.
“To “update” they ask you to warn the child that he will be called from school. When communicating with a child, he is convinced to give the scammers the number from the SMS message. The confirmation code is used to restore access to a citizen’s account on the State Services portal and further illegal activities,” the Ministry of Internal Affairs explained.
To create credibility, criminals use data from real school employees, deepfake technologies, and fake numbers. As a recommendation, the department advised to always check the accuracy of incoming information through trusted communication channels.
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Information about RT’s new fraudulent scheme was commented on by the Sferum press service. They warned that all updates on the platform occur directly on users’ devices and do not require any codes.
“Updates of the Sferum communication platform occur automatically and exclusively on the user’s device, without the participation of third parties. Codes from SMS are not used for this, including codes from State Services. Information about service updates can come exclusively from the platform in the form of a system message and is for informational purposes only,” the press service said.
At the same time, the interlocutor clarified that communications on educational issues are also carried out exclusively in Sferum, where all users are verified.
Universal protection scheme
Meanwhile, the chairman of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Information Technologies and Communications, Sergei Boyarsky, told RT in a conversation how to protect himself from the new attacker scheme. According to him, the schemes of criminals may change, but the goal always remains the same – to lure the code out of SMS.
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“Therefore, the recipe is universal – understand and remember, tell children, tell parents, relatives, friends that under no circumstances are any codes received by SMS communicated to anyone over the phone. This is universal protection. Today they will call from the laundry, tomorrow from the post office, the day after tomorrow from the clinic, then they will introduce themselves as a bank, then as a mobile operator. So today it’s a school, tomorrow it’s a university, you can come up with a huge number of scenarios,” the parliamentarian explained.
He called on citizens to remember that no organization will ever request passwords over the phone that they send via SMS or push notifications.
“As soon as you are asked to dictate something, you know that scammers are working with you. Unfortunately, such a wave is coming, absolutely colossal. Especially when it comes to communicating with unfamiliar numbers, it is always better to take a break, consult with common sense, with friends, with colleagues and understand that you may be under the bait of ill-wishers,” the deputy concluded.
Source: russian.rt.com
