The Ministry of Digital Development called the only reliable way not to become a victim of a new fraud scheme with QR codes on public services

Hanging up the phone immediately and not entering into any conversations with supposedly calling employees of the public services portal is the only reliable way not to become a victim of a new fraud scheme, the ministry said.

As writes RBC, the ministry stressed that it is not necessary to talk to scammers or share any personal data. Also, there is no need to change the password for public services using a smartphone and no need to send a message with a code to anyone. If a person has already realized that he has encountered a scammer, he should immediately call the State Services hotline or the police.

The Ministry of Digital Transformation also indicated that a QR code about vaccination or a covid-19 case appears in a verified account automatically after the Ministry of Health transfers the necessary information to the portal. Portal employees do not call citizens without an application and do not request their data.

As a reminder, earlier it became known about the frequent scheme of fraud. Attackers call potential victims and pose as Gosuslug employees, offering to link a QR code to a page on the portal, and eventually gaining access to their accounts.

The total amount of damage from the actions of telephone scammers for 11 months of last year amounted to 45 billion rubles. According to statistics, every seventh inhabitant of Russia faced this type of deception. At the same time, in half of the cases, the victims themselves transfer codes and passwords to their payment and banking data to the attackers. The stolen amounts range from 15,000 to tens of millions of rubles.

Later, the support service of the Gosuslugi portal strengthened the protection of its users’ accounts.