Scammers are increasingly stealing money from Russians by asking them to update their banking app. They present themselves as employees of the bank and send a link that blocks the victim’s smartphone, the VTB press service informed RB.RU.
Author:
https://rb.ru/author/ntihonov/
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According to the credit institution, in September one in ten calls from scammers to instant messaging was to request the installation of the “correct version” of the banking application. The attackers demand that this be done quickly, threatening that the bank will block the customer’s accounts and cards.
The victim is sent a link to download the application, but upon clicking on it, the smartphone screen locks and the fraudsters gain access to the customer’s personal account. You also receive a message on your phone with a code that scammers use to withdraw money. In the first half of September the number of complaints of this type from customers increased sixfold, VTB indicated.
“Deceivers constantly use similar schemes under various pretexts. If a similar situation happens to you, immediately stop the conversation and contact the bank to block your personal account and prevent the withdrawal of funds,” said Nikita Chugunov, senior vice president and head of the Digital Business department at VTB.
In 2024, telephone scammers, according to Sberbank, increasingly began to use instant messaging to deceive Russians, and the damage from their actions has already reached almost 250 billion rubles. If the trend continues, the amount could grow to 300 billion rubles by the end of the year, the bank warned.
Author:
Nikolai Tikhonov
Source: RB
I am a professional journalist and content creator with extensive experience writing for news websites. I currently work as an author at Gadget Onus, where I specialize in covering hot news topics. My written pieces have been published on some of the biggest media outlets around the world, including The Guardian and BBC News.
