A guide to dealing with telephone scammers (basic recommendations)

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Following the previous publication, we have prepared a number of simple recommendations on how to avoid becoming a victim of a telephone scammer:

Do not give your personal information to anyone over the phone.

Remember that neither the bank's security service, nor, especially, a law enforcement officer, will ask you for your bank card details, passport number or similar personal data over the phone.

If an investigator or operative really needs you, he will invite you to his office for a personal meeting, and will not "interrogate you over the phone".

The same applies to bank employees - in order to perform actions with your account, you will be asked to either go to a bank branch or perform actions from a mobile application

There are no "safe accounts" for transferring money.

One of the common schemes is when a conditional "investigator" or "bank employee" informs a citizen that attackers have tried to steal his money. Since the current bank account has been hacked, you need to urgently transfer your savings to a special account where they will be safe. You need to hurry, because "hackers" can get access to your savings any minute. After that, the money ends up in the hands of real scammers.

Banks do not have any "safe accounts" - they can temporarily block a card or account if a suspicious transaction is made.

Law enforcement agencies are not authorized to perform any transactions with citizens' accounts or property.

Do not open suspicious links.

Often, scammers, under a good pretext, persuade you to follow a link or install an application that is supposedly necessary to protect your finances. However, malware is often hidden under the guise of "antivirus", and personal data entered in the "official bank application" immediately ends up in the hands of intruders.

Real bank employees or law enforcement officers will not persuade you to open some suspicious link from the application.

Also remember that you can only download applications (especially those related to finances and personal data) from official sources.

There is no such thing as a free lunch.

Do I need to explain that news about a sudden win or a generous loan offer with a minimum interest rate never brings anything good?

Try not to call back unknown numbers.

This is perhaps the most harmless type of fraud - the attacker calls a person and then hangs up. A call back to the number turns out to be paid (and sometimes very expensive).

There is no such thing as too much caution.

Most mobile operators have long developed "anti-spam" programs that block suspicious numbers or inform the subscriber that the number may be used by scammers. You should also pay attention to the protection of your personal data.

Unfortunately, the specifics of telephone fraud are such that the perpetrators are extremely rarely held accountable. Therefore, it is better to prevent a crime than to try to return the stolen money after the fact.