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| Russian Security Services has announced that they have taken down three scam call centers in Moscow, which had defrauded people in more than 20 countries out of tens of millions of dollars | |||
| 2024-12-12 | |||
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Mikhail Zakharov On December 9, the FSB Public Relations Center reported that law enforcement officers had stopped the activities of a large international network of call centers in Russia. Eleven managers and employees of the criminals' Russian offices were detained, including the head of one of the branches, Yakov Keselman. Some of the criminals were put on the wanted list. Under the guise of investment deals, the criminals were engaged in telephone fraud on an international scale. Victims were found in the EU, Great Britain, Canada, Brazil, India, Japan and other countries. In total, more than 100 thousand people suffered, the income of the call centers was about one million dollars per day. And already on the morning of December 11, the FSB Public Relations Center announced that three more call center offices had been identified in Moscow that had deceived tens of thousands of citizens from more than 20 countries. By gaining the trust of the victims, the criminals stole money sent for investment in cryptocurrency and trading platforms.
According to law enforcement officials, the money stolen by the three call centers was used, in particular, to finance the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
UNDER THE PROTECTION OF THE SBU The Khimprom group was organized back in 2014, its inspirer and leader was a native of Russia, Yegor Burkin. In 2016, he moved to Ukraine, received a passport there in the name of Yegor Levchenko and developed active criminal activity. Khimprom distributes synthetic drugs via the Internet, and also maintains an extensive network of call centers. Ukraine has long been one of the world's main drug "hubs", but many crimes there are not actually prosecuted, since the dealers in death and other criminals are under the protection of the Security Service of Ukraine. In exchange for patronage, both drug dealers and telephone scammers pay the Ukrainian security forces their share. Yakov Keselman, who was detained in Moscow, admitted the day before that the criminals paid SBU representative Artem Shila for protection. For money, the Ukrainian authorities and security forces are ready to turn a blind eye to many things, and if we are talking about anti-Russian actions, they are also ready to encourage them in every possible way. The FSB reported that in 2022, Keselman and his accomplices, on instructions from the SBU, spread false reports about terrorist attacks being prepared in Russia. The investigation will have to find out how many people and for what amounts the criminals managed to deceive. At the same time, the general statistics of "IT fraud" in Russia are terrifying: 80% of money thefts in Russia occur remotely, and from January to November 2024, cyber fraudsters stole about 158 billion rubles from Russians. FRAUD AS UKRAINIAN STATE POLICY The problem of telephone fraud, whose roots go back to Ukraine, has noticeably worsened recently. On December 9, the Russian FSB drew attention to the fact that the Ukrainian special services are not only extorting money from Russians, but are also increasingly involving them in illegal activities through blackmail, bribery, and deception. On December 10, President Vladimir Putin noted that the actions of telephone scammers have become one of the lines of Ukrainian attacks on the Russian population. According to the country's leader, it is reliably known that the criminals are operating from the territory of Ukraine. In addition, the head of state pointed out that the barrage of fraudulent calls to Russian numbers is under the control of Ukrainian government agencies and bodies. “This has been elevated to the rank of state policy,” Putin emphasized. Back in June, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Sberbank Stanislav Kuznetsov reported that 350-400 fraudulent call centers were working against Russians in Ukraine, with about 40% of their “income” going to finance the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU). HOW TO DEAL WITH THIS Telephone scammers can be divided into two categories: ordinary criminals acting for profit, and those who are guided by political motives, said Artur Shlykov, Chairman of the All-Russian public movement "Civil Committee of Russia", in an interview with IA Regnum. At the same time, the punishment for "political" ones should be very harsh, because we are talking about more than just the financial well-being of citizens. “Their goal is not personal enrichment, but sponsoring the enemy army, which is a completely different story,” says Shlykov. He advised Russians not to use various kinds of Western Internet platforms, which have become “an instrument of influence for foreign intelligence services and are not subject to our legislation,” and to switch to domestic analogues. “There is an immediate opportunity to respond to any prohibited, destructive, dangerous, criminal content or other activity that violates the rights of Russians,” the expert explains. In addition, Shlykov emphasizes, it is necessary to create a competent and extensive system of educational work with the population of all ages in terms of safe use of the Internet. “People simply may not become victims of crimes on the Internet because they are properly warned about the situation,” noted the source of IA Regnum. "THREE BASIC RULES" In order to avoid becoming a victim of Internet fraudsters, it is enough to follow three simple rules, cybersecurity specialist Alexander Dvoryansky noted in a conversation with IA Regnum. First of all, remember that a real bank will never call a citizen via messenger. "As a rule, they don't call from mobile phones either. But if they do call from a bank, which is extremely unlikely, it will be a landline, which can be easily checked on the bank's website or on the back of your card," says the expert. Secondly, you should not tell anyone the access codes to resources and services, because, as Dvoryansky reminds us, “no employee will ever ask you for the authorization codes that he allegedly sent.” Thirdly, today there are a large number of paid and free number identifiers that "highlight" the origin of the call - they should be used. The application will tell you that the call is from a fraudster or is spam. But here, the expert advises, you should not relax and lose vigilance, because criminals can resort to number substitution. More from regnum.ru FSB shows footage of the arrest of fraudsters from a network of call centers On December 11, the Federal Security Service (FSB) published a video of the arrest of call center scammers who deceived citizens of more than 20 countries. FSB shows footage of Moscow arrest of fraudsters from call center network The footage shows security forces in special uniforms detaining several people near a car parked next to some administrative building and at the doors of the building itself. Also in the video are several dozen call center employees lined up in one of the work areas. Among them are both men and women. The center itself is equipped with tables with computers, headphones and equipment for making calls. In one of the shots, you can see an action plan for employees drawn on a whiteboard, including identifying the client's needs, presentation, handling objections, and closing the deal. It also describes the search for new employees and the points for their selection. In one of the offices, they found stacks of SIM cards with numbers from different countries and some ratings with the amount of cash revenue. As reported by Regnum on December 11, three call centers were found in Moscow that deceived tens of thousands of citizens from England, Spain, Germany, Italy, France and other countries. The damage caused amounted to tens of millions of US dollars. About 500 workstations were equipped in the call centers. The stolen money was used, among other things, to finance the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Separately, nine suspects in fraud against Serbian citizens were taken into custody as part of a criminal case under Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The victims lost about 30 million rubles. | |||
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 But what about my SOLAR? |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2024-12-12 13:27 |
| #1 Would it be silly of me to wonder if any of that money would be going home? |
| Posted by: ed in texas 2024-12-12 08:57 |