Fraudsters use housing and communal services topics to deceive citizens before the heating season
Quick Look
- Before the heating season, scammers use housing and communal services topics to deceive citizens, luring out codes from SMS under the pretext of confirming an application for a heating connection, a visit from a repairman, or recalculating payments.
- State Duma deputy Alexander Aksenenko warned that such codes are not required for these operations and called for discussing fraud schemes with elderly relatives in advance.
AI-generated summary
Why It Matters
Before the heating season, scammers activate deception schemes, using housing and communal services topics to lure codes from SMS and personal data of citizens under the pretext of confirming applications, visiting specialists or recalculating payments.
Brief retelling from RIA II
Before the heating season, scammers use housing and communal services topics to deceive citizens, luring them out of a code from an SMS, asking them to follow a link or install an application.
State Duma deputy Alexander Aksenenko emphasized that codes from SMS are not required to start heating, visit a specialist or recalculate utility bills.
Aksenenko urged to talk to elderly relatives in advance about such fraud schemes and reminded that the codes from the SMS are not needed by the employees of the management company, the heat supply organization or the foreman.
MOSCOW, October 5 - RIA Novosti. Before the heating season, fraudsters, under the pretext of “confirming an application” for heating connection, a visit from a technician, checking a meter, debt or recalculation, lure citizens out of a code from an SMS, asking them to follow a link or install an application, State Duma deputy Alexander Aksenenko told RIA Novosti.
“Before the heating season, the topic of housing and communal services becomes especially convenient for scammers: people are really waiting for the heat to start up, system checks, they can contact the management company about batteries or charges. Therefore, the legends are chosen as plausible as possible. A person can be told that he needs to “confirm the application” for heating connection, coordinate a visit from a technician, check the meter or find out the debt, issue a recalculation,” said Aksenenko.
The parliamentarian clarified that sometimes scammers give the address of the house, last name or management company (MC) for persuasiveness, and then ask for the most important thing - a code from an SMS, follow a link or install an application.
“You need to remember: codes from SMS are not required either to start heating, or for a visit from a specialist, or to recalculate utility bills. If in doubt, it is better to end the conversation and clarify the information yourself. Find the phone number of your management or resource supply organization in the receipt, GIS housing and communal services or on the official website,” he emphasized.
The deputy explained that the main danger of such schemes is that scammers do not come up with something fantastic, but fit into the real agenda: the heating season begins, checks are actually carried out somewhere, systems are launched, residents call management companies because of cold batteries.
Open Questions
- What specific management companies or organizations are most often mentioned in these schemes?
- Are there statistics on the number of victims of such fraud this year?
- What preventative measures, in addition to information, do the authorities offer?
