Scam Warns: Finish Digitization or Face Pension Cut

In 2026, scammers have become active — every week, residents of Nizhny Novgorod Region transfer tens of millions of rubles to fraudsters. Recently, criminals have begun mass-involving people in a new scheme: they create a separate chat for each victim. Journalist Natalia Khalezova investigated what trap cybercriminals have prepared and how to avoid becoming their victim.

“It’s an Order from Above”

Nizhny Novgorod resident Svetlana Kukina was added to the Telegram chat “TsK Rekord” — she had once collaborated with the Cultural Center. A certain “employee” Kristina Alekseevna told all group members that she was carrying out the director’s order:

“We need to complete the digitization of the archive (transfer current personnel records to electronic media and remove those who are no longer working from the archive so they are no longer listed). Please check the lists to see if everything is correct, and write here. Next, I will send instructions on what to do.”

The “director” joined the conversation, asked for assistance and to check the data — allegedly, an order had come from above, “so that former employees no longer appear in the system and there are no problems with work history.”

In the chat, a lively correspondence is taking place; participants ask for details, agree — saying it’s an important matter, they’ve heard of such a requirement, the procedure is mandatory for all organizations. And if you don’t confirm the data, then “your pension will be cut,” the responsible “employee” warns.

To participate in the data digitization, you need to click a link from the chat; the bot will send a unique 6-digit key. That key must be sent to the general chat or to Kristina Alekseevna privately. All participants obediently reported the required digits, waiting only for Svetlana. But the Nizhny Novgorod resident did not fall for the deception and left the chat.

And recently, Svetlana was added again to a fake work group. This time, the scammers slipped up: in the chat, a bot was conducting correspondence from an employee who had died several years ago.

A similar story happened to Nizhny Novgorod resident Sergey Petrov, who was asked to participate in the digitization of the archive of a children’s art school with which he had collaborated. The fake chief accountant explained the need for the procedure as being in the employees’ own interests – if you refuse, there would supposedly be problems with pension accruals and personnel documents. To complete the digitization, you need to get a personal key through the official “Gosuslugi” bot. Sergey also suspected something was wrong and did not fall into the trap.

Don’t Fall for the Tricks of Fake Managers

As the Nizhny Novgorod police informed us, archive digitization is a current trick used by scammers that they started using at the end of 2025. It is a variation of the fake boss scheme, but more sophisticated.

“The criminals prepare carefully: they gather information from open sources and social media about the victim and their workplaces, including names and positions of colleagues. This allows the scammers to create a fake work chat with a high degree of trust. In such a chat, only one participant is real, all the rest are bots. For greater credibility, they use the organization’s emblem as an avatar. The group includes a pseudo-manager who participates in the discussion. The ‘employees’ confirm each other’s actions and push the victim to comply with the request. By clicking on a phishing link, you can give scammers access to your messenger account or your Gosuslugi profile. So far in Nizhny Novgorod, no criminal cases have been opened under this scheme, but residents must remain vigilant!” explained the UMVD of Russia for Nizhny Novgorod (the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for Nizhny Novgorod).

If you provide the code, a multi-level scam scheme may also be activated, using social engineering, the main tool of fraudsters. You will receive calls from “Gosuslugi support employees” or fake law enforcement officers, who will convince you that your accounts have been hacked, that money is being transferred to unfriendly countries or in support of banned organizations. It all ends with the “declaration” of your savings and subsequent handover to a courier or transfer of funds to “safe accounts.”

“If you are added to such a chat, do not engage in dialogue, do not share personal data, and do not click on links. Block the user who added you to the group and the chat itself. You can file a complaint with the messenger support about fraudulent activity. Verify information using the organization’s real phone numbers — not through the messenger and especially not from ‘colleagues’ in that chat. No organization requires an employee, let alone a pensioner, to authorize via SMS or the Gosuslugi portal for archive digitization,” the Nizhny Novgorod police remind.

For information on how to get back money transferred to fraudulent accounts, read our article.