Scammers Pose as Bailiffs Over Fines

On 27 January, TASS reported, citing the Ministry of Internal Affairs, about a new fraud scheme in which criminals pose as bailiffs and notify citizens about unpaid fines for traffic violations.

The scam consists of two stages. First, the victim receives a call allegedly from the Federal Bailiff Service (FSSP), claiming there is an old fine with accrued penalties. To convince the person, the scammers ask them to check the information on the «Gosuslugi» portal and provide a code from a supposedly received SMS. Once the victim shares the code, the criminals gain access to their account.

In the second stage, other scammers start calling the victim, posing as employees of Rosfinmonitoring (Federal Financial Monitoring Service) or the FSB (Federal Security Service). They convince the person that their data has been compromised but that the criminals have been «identified.» For «security purposes,» they suggest withdrawing all cash from accounts and transferring it to a special «protected» account.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs strongly recommends not sharing confirmation codes from SMS with strangers over the phone and under no circumstances transferring money based on instructions from unknown callers.