Russian Cyber Criminals started using bots to deceive victims

Fraudulent call centers started using bots to filtering distrustful victims in order to force them to call back and assist them on their own

According to experts, this approach makes it possible to reduce the cost of attacks on victims and increase conversion.

“The robot says: “Your card in this bank is blocked, call us back at this number”. When the victim calls back, allegedly the bank’s security officers answer, ” explained Artem Gavrichenkov, technical director of Qrator Labs. He added that scammers make up to hundreds of calls a day using such robots.

Fraudsters also use fake IP telephony service numbers, bulk SMS sending services and messages in Messengers on behalf of the Bank, said Sergei Nikitin, deputy head of the Group-IB computer forensics laboratory.

The fraudsters in this case used “reverse social engineering”, said Alexey Drozd, head of the information security department at SerchInform. In such cases, the victim calls the attackers.

Andrey Zaikin, Head of Information Security at CROC, explained that people are not used to the use of robots by scammers, this increases the credibility of hackers.

The technology also makes the attack cheaper, adds Mikhail Kondrashin, technical Director of Trend Micro in Russia and the CIS. A robot is a simple software for auto-calling, notes Mr. Zaikin. Developers of voice platforms usually do not charge a fee for creating such a bot, and the average cost of a call is 2.5–3.5 rubles ($0.3-$0.4) per minute.

Previously, many fake call centers operated from prisons, but recently, according to Group-IB, most are organized outside and sometimes even abroad. According to experts, international cooperation at the state level is necessary to neutralize them.