Preparing for the call: how scammers work

Dear clients!

Scammers may call you on behalf of the police, National Bank, National Security Committee, Cyber Police and other agencies.

At the same time, in order to induce confidence in such calls, fraudsters often use the following methods:

🚨 1) A message from a “manager” or “colleague”

Via messenger (mostly WhatsApp), a message is sent allegedly from your manager or a colleague. The scammers pretend to be your manager, the avatar may be a real photo of your manager.

This “manager” claims that there is some kind of inspection from the authorities, intimidates with the consequences, then writes that now he will be contacted by an employee of the authorities, with whom he needs to clarify all the issues. After that, a call comes from a scammer who introduces himself as an employee of the authorities.

🚨 2) Call with a request to spell out the code

The number receives an SMS with a code from a service. Scammers present themselves as employees of these services (cellular operators, utilities, clinics, courier services, etc.). Their goal is to persuade you to give the code from the SMS under various pretexts.

If the code is given, you will soon receive another call from another scammer who will introduce himself as an employee of the authorities. This “officer” will say that by giving the code, you allegedly allowed the scammers to apply for a loan or withdraw funds from your account.

🚨 3) «Recorded call»

You receive a call from scammers who are silent for a few seconds, then say: “Your voice is recorded” or some other similar phrase, and then terminate the call.

After that, there is a call from a second scammer, who introduces himself as an employee of the authorities, claiming that an anomaly in the client’s transactions has allegedly been noticed. He then explains that thanks to the allegedly recorded voice, the scammers arrange a loan in the client’s name or transfer funds from the client's account.

Conclusion:

Thus, in each of the methods described above, the scammers’ preliminary actions attempt to prepare the potential victim for a call from an “law enforcement officer”. In all cases, this “law enforcement officer” will claim that they are going to help defend themselves against the scammers, but in order to do so, they will demand that they follow their instructions clearly.

Calls may come in bulk. Different scammers, posing as employees of various authorities, using any methods of persuasion, including threats, will try to convince you to apply for a loan or make a transfer to safe accounts allegedly for the safety of funds.

If you are receiving such calls or messages, they are scammers. Be warned!