Fraud scheme involving the use of social media and messengers

Fraudsters gain access to the victim’s accounts on social media or messengers. Under the victim’s name they send a message to the list of contacts urgently requesting money and promising to pay it back soon.

Why does this fraud scheme work so well?

A lot of people fall for this trick because the perpetrator checks the previous text messages on the victim’s account. They often continue the existing conversation in the familiar for the contact manner which makes the messages more believable because obviously this is your friend, acquaintance or even relative who is texting you.

If you receive such request on social media or in messengers, do not send them money right away. We advise you to contact this person in some other way to hear their voice and confirm the reliability of the information sent to you earlier.

Moreover, we recommend you to follow some basic rules of IT security:

• Activate two-factor authentication.
• Keep in mind the risks of using open (no password required) Wi-Fi networks.
• Take needed precautions to protect your devices (graphical passwords, biometrics).
• Turn off the feature that allows anyone to view your account on social media (make it available only for the list of contacts)

It is important to understand additional consequences for the victim of a hacker attack:

• Apart from the personal data, the hacker can gain access to all the information that you have shared in the conversation. Therefore, avoid sharing confidential information in the chats.
• Illegal use of content: photos and videos or personal messages can be stolen and used to create fake accounts and digital profiles of celebrities.

We ask you to inform our Contact Center (0 800 305555) of any possible fraud cases.