The majority of Russians (82%) have experienced fraud attempts in recent months. This is evidenced by the results of a survey conducted by experts from the NAFI Analytical Center. RT got acquainted with the results of the study.
In the course of the work, experts identified several of the most common fraudulent schemes.
The top 5 were led by offers to make money on the Internet on “investments”, for example, through investing money in cryptocurrency, technology, and so on. 55% of respondents reported receiving such messages. Most often, they were residents of the Southern Federal District and the North Caucasus Federal District (64%), young people aged 18 to 24 years (66%), men (60%).
Second place in the anti-rating was taken by calls from representatives of “banks” or “law enforcement agencies”, whose task was to find out bank card details or gain access to the victim’s personal account. 54% of Russians faced this – residents of the Central Federal District (63%), Russians from 45 to 54 years old and respondents with higher education (63%).
Third place went to emails containing viruses or malicious links. Fraudsters sent similar messages to block the victim’s digital device and demand money to unlock it. 39% of Russians reported receiving such messages – residents of the Volga Federal District (45%), respondents aged 35 to 44 (43%), qualified specialists (51%).
The fourth place was occupied by offers to receive a payment or compensation from the “state”, for which you need to provide bank card details, and the fifth place was taken by requests to transfer funds, for example, to “help” friends or register a “win”.
In addition, according to experts, Russians encountered scammers when buying or selling goods on the Internet (29% of respondents), got on phishing sites – fake pages of famous brands (22%).
“The share of Russians reporting fraud attempts has increased by 24 percentage points over the past six months, from 58% to 82%,” the analysts added.
According to the Director General of the NAFI Analytical Center Guzeliya Imayeva, a surge in fraud usually occurs during periods of socio-economic changes.
“During times of change, people often lose their vigilance, emotionally make decisions, and against this background, scammers feel like a fish in troubled waters. The variability of fraudulent approaches that we see today demonstrates the high adaptability of attackers to new conditions,” Imaeva explained, recalling the need to improve financial literacy.
The NAFI study involved 1.6 thousand people aged 18 and over from 53 regions of Russia. The statistical error of the data does not exceed 3.4%.
Earlier, IT technology expert, author and founder of the Pochinka blog tech blog Nikita Mokeev warned that if an attacker gets hold of a SIM card without an activated PIN code, he will gain access to banking applications and confidential information of the owner of the phone.
Source: russian.rt.com
