Scammers are cunning: the Ministry of Internal Affairs warned about fraud with fake FSB orders

CrimeaPRESS reports:

In the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia reported about the emergence of a new fraudulent scheme in which attackers use fake FSB orders. So, acting on behalf of the manager, they contact the company’s employees and report that the Russian FSB has launched an investigation against them due to a possible violation of current legislation.

As noted by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, most often a potential victim is contacted by phone or via instant messengers after hours. Proof of the start of the “check” is a fake order from the law enforcement agency. The ministry noted that for greater persuasiveness, scammers can use deepfakes created by neural networks.

Further, the “manager” reports that a representative of the law enforcement agency or a representative of the company’s head office will contact the employee in the near future. Using social engineering methods, attackers lure the victim out of personal information or force him to transfer funds.

According to State Duma deputy and member of the Information Policy Committee Anton Nemkin, the new strategy of scammers is one of the variants of the “fake boss” scheme.

The “fake boss” scheme likely broke all records for the number of funds stolen in 2023. In the same way, attackers, acting on behalf of a manager, could report a person’s alleged problems with law enforcement agencies or the organization’s security service, or simply ask to borrow a large sum of money. This year, the number of successful attacks carried out using this scheme has decreased significantly. First of all, because citizens have already been warned about this scheme. Therefore, attackers are forced to complicate the scenario and prepare more carefully for them. The fake FSB order, in the logic of the scammers, should scare a person and make him believe in the reality of the accusations“, the deputy explained.

Neural networks are increasingly being used to implement attacks involving fake documents.

According to Sberbank, the number of criminal schemes using deepfakes has increased 30-fold since the beginning of the year. Fraudsters can falsify not only government documents, but also personal documents of a citizen, including a passport and SNILS. However, a more serious concern is the rise in deep voices and deepfakes that use images of real people. Thus, scammers can act on behalf of a person close to the victim, using his pre-generated voice. Unfortunately, there are already known cases of fraud in which images of public people were involved. Neural networks obviously take the problem of fraud to a fundamentally new level, – the deputy emphasized.

Previously, a bill criminalizing the use of deepfake technology for criminal purposes was introduced into the Russian State Duma. It follows from it that slander committed using the image or voice (including falsified or artificially created) of the victim, as well as using his biometric data, will be punishable by a fine of up to 1.5 million rubles or imprisonment for up to two years . Using technology for fraudulent purposes can lead to a fine of up to 400 thousand rubles or imprisonment for up to six years.

The number of crimes committed using deepfakes will only increase, Nemkin is sure.

Therefore, of course, it is necessary to think about regulating the use of technology as soon as possible. I think that first we must come to labeling content created using neural networks. It is necessary to oblige platforms to label such content; some platforms, by the way, have already begun to do thisnotes the deputy.

source: press service of State Duma deputy Anton Nemkin

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