The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia has issued a warning over a cybercrime scheme targeting 18-year-old citizens across the country, state news agency RIA Novosti reported.
Scammers are contacting young adults who have just reached the age of legal majority, posing as mobile network operators to trick them into handing over personal security credentials.
According to police, fraudsters phone victims who have recently turned 18 and inform them that their mobile phone subscription number must be re-registered. The callers ask the young people to provide verification codes sent to their mobile devices via SMS to complete the process.
Once the scammers obtain the verification code, a second caller contacts the victim posing as a representative from the security department of Gosuslugi, Russia's official state services portal. The fraudulent caller claims that unauthorized individuals have hacked the victim's personal account and are currently downloading their private data.
Threats of police searches and stolen funds
A third fraudster then contacts the victim, asserting that their money is currently being used in an illegal fraudulent scheme. The individual is warned that law enforcement officers will soon conduct a search of their home as part of a criminal investigation.
To protect their savings, victims are advised to transfer all their funds to allegedly safe accounts controlled by the perpetrators. Scammers also intimidate victims by claiming that unauthorized microloans have already been registered in their name.
Fraudsters tell the young adults that to cancel these false microloans, they must submit cancellation applications to microfinance organizations. By requesting further SMS verification codes during this process, the criminals secure loans in the victim's name and steal the disbursed funds.
Rising cybercrime and fake mobile applications
The warning comes amid broader efforts by Russian law enforcement to combat identity theft and online fraud. The Ministry of Internal Affairs, known as the MVD, serves as Russia's primary federal police agency. Gosuslugi is the country's central government portal through which citizens manage identity credentials, tax records, and state documentation.
The ministry previously uncovered a separate cyber fraud scheme involving fake mobile applications that claimed to map the locations of petrol stations. Downloading those malicious applications installed viruses on users' mobile phones, granting fraudsters remote access to the devices.
