RIA: Russians to face major wave of fraud attacks in autumn
Experts from the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA) have warned Russians about a major wave of fraudulent attacks. According to their forecasts, the peak of crimes will occur in the fall of 2024.
Experts from the research laboratory “Linguistic Security and Psychology of Information Impact” noted that the attacks will use deepfake technology, an image synthesis technique based on neural network technology.
Deepfakes are used to combine and superimpose existing images and videos onto original images or videos. They can be used to replace certain elements of an image with desired images, including creating recordings that can later be used for political manipulation, personal gain, or revenge.
Attacks may come from Ukraine
Head of the laboratory Gennady Slyshkin indicated that the reasons underlying the forecast are both technological and political in nature.
According to him, the Ukrainian authorities are in a situation of financial crisis and ideological agony, because of which they may resort to fraud. This is a good monetary “boost” and an opportunity to support the morale of their own citizens at the expense of the troubles of the Russians, the expert explained.
Slyshkin also noted that the programs used to create deepfakes are fairly easy to use, so there is no need to spend a lot of time training call center employees.
Fraudsters will call on behalf of relatives or superiors
Laboratory expert, moderator of the Anti-Fraud project Irina Smirnova revealed a fraud scheme that can be used by fraudsters. The specialist warned that this scheme will be used en masse in the near future.
“Russians will receive video calls from their ‘immediate supervisors’ or ‘close relatives’ asking them to transfer money or provide access to ‘Gosuslugi’,” she said.
To protect personal data from fraudsters, GR and compliance specialist at Code Security, Alexandra Spasova, recommended that Russians avoid sending scanned copies and photographs of documents via instant messengers and social networks.
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In addition, she advised using one device for work and personal life, and another one for interacting with digital services, with a different number, a new e-mail and a separate bank card. According to her, in this case, if personal data is leaked or the device is hacked, the damage will be minimal.
The specialist also recommended setting strict privacy settings in all applications, limiting access to personal data. “Antivirus, secure password storage, backups – all this should be in the user’s arsenal,” Spasova added.
The expert urged people to register on new portals with caution, and it is better to work only with resources that have been in use for a long time.
In conclusion, Spasova noted that attackers actively use deepfake technology, with the help of which they fake voice messages and video messages in Telegram. “It is difficult to recognize such a fake, but it is possible: the circles will be short, with limited facial expressions; the voice or video recording will be unusual for the interlocutor; the request will be of a material nature,” she explained.
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