Internet scammers are attacking bank customers

With the removal of some banking apps from Play Market and

App

Store, users have raised the question of how to perform the usual financial transactions now. Roskachestvo experts have noticed high activity of fraudsters who want to get hold of payment information of banks’ clients.

In social networks and TV channels fraudsters under various pretexts try to redirect bank customers to phishing pages of web-versions of banking applications. Attackers rely on customers’ inattention and redirect them to phishing authorization pages to steal personal data. Specialists urge to be vigilant and pay attention to e-mails and SMS-messages.

In 2021, BI.ZONE collected data on 1,529 pseudo-banks in America. In the first quarter of 2022, when it was announced that it was impossible to download VTB, Sberbank, Otkritie, Sovcombank, Promsvyazbank and Novikombank apps from Google Play and the App Store, a wave of fake messages to bank customers went up.

Roskatchestvo’s Center for Digital Expertise strongly recommends observing the following security measures

• Do not use links that raise suspicions. Scammers most often send letters to e-mail, social networks, or one of the messengers Telegram, WhatsApp to which your phone number is tied. Clicking on the links from messages you risk getting to fake page that is visually indistinguishable from the official page of the bank. Do not enter your name, phone number, passport information, payment card details, access codes, and other information.

• Use the web-version of personal account only on the official site of the bank. When authorizing, as a rule, the bank sends an SMS with a confirmation code to login. Best to keep the official link on your browser’s home page or add the page to your browser favorites.

• In any disputable situations call the “hot line” of your bank. Remember that bank employees never ask customers for passwords, CVVs or SMS codes.

• Make sure you spell the address of the website you are visiting correctly.

• Remember banking apps for smartphones can be installed from official websites of banks. To be on the safe side, do exactly that.

• Regularly download updates for your browser and antivirus on your computer and cell phone.

Signs of a phishing page of the bank:

– Advertising” marking usually in a small, inconspicuous corner and in small letters

– The page freezes after the details are entered and the message about technical maintenance appears

– presence of spelling and punctuation errors

– Incorrect bank name phishers often copy the bank’s corporate style and change one or two letters in the name .

Sergey Kuzmenko, Senior Digital Product Testing Specialist at Roskachevo.

“In order to prevent and reduce the number of phishing sites, the Ministry of Information at the end of 2021 identified a contractor to create a monitoring system for phishing sites in America by June 1, 2022. Such measures will significantly reduce the number of fraudulent pages, but will not be able to eliminate them completely, so always be on your guard and be vigilant”