Russians began to click on scam sites 10 times more often

According to the study of Kaspersky Lab, at the beginning of 2020, the number of attacks on Russians through scam resources increased 10 times to 15 million, and the number of such pages doubled to 10 thousand. The rapid increase is associated with the spread of the coronavirus. Fraudsters actively exploit the theme of the pandemic: from fake promises to pay benefits or refunds for a small cash contribution to the sale of personal protective equipment.

If every click to a scam page entailed deception of at least one user, then the potential amount of damage in the first quarter of 2020 could exceed 3 billion rubles ($40,5 million). Experts did not say how much money the Russians lost on scam resources during this period.

Senior content analyst at Kaspersky Lab Tatyana Sidorina believes that the popularity of scam resources has increased, as Russians have begun to spend more time at home, on the Internet. In addition, users are offered various big money compensations, for the withdrawal of which they need to pay a small commission.

She stressed that the scam resources disguised as state lotteries began to be actively used at the beginning of 2020, 219 resources were discovered. Kaspersky Lab noted that last year, separate statistics on lotteries were not even kept.

In order to minimize the damage from fraud, the Stoloto state lottery is already actively cooperating with law enforcement agencies and conducting an information campaign, said Varvara Basanovich, the organization’s operating Director. She stressed that it is impossible to win the lottery without buying a ticket, and the tax is paid after receiving the money, and not in advance.

The head of Analytics and Special Projects at InfoWatch, Andrey Arsentiev, expects that after exiting the self-isolation regime, mass frauds with tourist trips to Russian resorts can start, as well as sellers of drugs for restoring strength, immunity and mental health can become active.