The intensity of telephone scam attacks in Russia has decreased, but attackers are moving to instant messengers

Thanks to regulatory measures, the intensity of attacks by telephone scammers in Russia has been reduced; against this background, attackers are increasingly moving to messengers, Stanislav Kuznetsov, deputy chairman of the board of Sberbank, said in an interview with RIA Novosti.

“Thanks to a set of measures, including the operation of banking anti-fraud systems, blocking of substitute numbers, the introduction of criminal liability for the illegal use of SIM boxes, the intensity of mobile calls was reduced. At the same time, there was a large-scale transfer of attacks to instant messengers,” he said at the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF).

According to the Bank of Russia, in the first half of the year, attackers tried to steal about 3.7 trillion rubles from Russians. But they managed to steal less than 15 billion rubles - approximately 0.4% of the amount that the attackers attempted.