Online fraud: how not to become a victim of scammers
Crimes related to online fraud have become the most widespread in Ukraine. The problem of combating fraud on the Internet is very acute, because more than 80% of citizens' appeals to the cyber police account for this type of crime (on average, about 40 thousand citizen appeals to the cyber police per year, 80% of which are for fraud).
The lion's share of appeals is complaints about the sale of non-existent goods, crimes using social engineering, scams using phishing.
In most cases, these schemes are quite banal: pseudo-sellers on the Internet offer various goods and services and ask for a subscription, and after receiving money, they disappear. Or they create phishing links, copying the interface of popular sites - banks, delivery services, mobile account replenishment services, various sites, including state ones, to receive social payments. In general, fraudsters always adapt their schemes according to the requests and needs of society.
A few tips to warn yourself and your relatives from scammers when using the Internet, namely to follow the algorithm of actions developed by cyber police officers, which minimizes the ability of fraudsters to deceive you:
- always be vigilant when making purchases through Internet resources (shops, auctions, bulletin boards, social networks, etc.)
- demand from the seller a copy of the passport or registration documents of the business entity;
- check the seller's available data (Internet resource, phone number and bank card) through the service “STOP FRAUD”, which operates on the basis of the resource www. cyberpolice.gov.ua. (official website of the Department of Cyberpolice);
- read reviews about the seller, we advise you not to trust the reviews that are directly left on the site itself.
In case of receiving a phone call from scammers, do not panic and try to get as much information as possible about the scammers, the circumstances of the adventure:
- try to get information about possible ways to transfer funds to fraudsters (bank payment card, phone number, etc.) ;
- if possible, call a loved one (in case of demanding funds to solve various kinds of issues regarding your loved ones, related to the activities of law enforcement agencies or for other reasons), check their location and in no case transfer or transfer funds to attackers;
- in case of unauthorized withdrawal of funds from the card account, immediately notify the banking institution and law enforcement agencies;
- limit calls to telephone numbers operating in answering machine mode and inquire about the availability of reviews on the Internet about such numbers.
The general rule is that in every case of committing fraudulent actions against you, be sure to contact the law enforcement agencies and transfer all the information received about fraudsters.
Cyberpolice of Ukraine
