Siberian woman targeted by student fraud scheme posing as Ministry

A resident of Novosibirsk, Elena, encountered a fraud attempt that seemed new to her — over the phone, she was asked to go to the «Ministry of Education» website and obtain an electronic supplement to her diploma to make her life easier. The regional Ministry of Education and cybersecurity experts commented on the situation.

«Employees of an Educational Center»

A resident of Novosibirsk, Elena, was called from an unknown number and introduced as employees of an educational center.

«They called supposedly from an educational center under the Ministry of Education. They started saying that I needed to get an electronic supplement to my diploma from my university. For this, they said I needed to go to the Ministry»s website (in reality, the site just looks like it), and there — log in through Gosuslugi (the Russian government services portal),« Elena recounted.

Then they started pressuring the Siberian woman: persuading her in every way to go to the website quickly. The woman is no longer a student and immediately suspected fraud, started asking the fraudsters questions that made them lose their temper, after which the criminals began to be rude and insult the woman. Elena is worried that someone might fall victim to the scam due to inexperience.

What the Ministry Says

NGS was informed by the regional Ministry of Education that they are not the founder of any university in the region, accordingly, ministry specialists cannot call students with any instructions.

«If a student is called with a demand to register in some system and they introduce themselves as a university employee, it»s better to respond that the student will go to the dean«s office in person and clarify where and how to register. We remind you not to share authentication codes and personal data with anyone to avoid becoming a victim of fraudsters,» the Ministry reminded.

«Fraudsters Adapt Their Schemes»

Sergei Golovanov, chief expert at Kaspersky Lab, notes: fraudsters always adapt their schemes to current agendas. For example, in autumn, when students and graduates are actively seeking internships and jobs, they might use the «electronic supplement» scenario. This is a standard example of social engineering, when criminals create a website visually similar to an official resource and convince the victim to follow a link and log in through Gosuslugi.

Fraudsters cannot gain access to Gosuslugi, but the mere fact of visiting the site can be used in a further scenario: the victim might be scared that their account was hacked, and to catch the criminals, they need to follow the callers« instructions. Typical signs help recognize the fraud: persistence of the callers, urgency like »hurry before lunch,« offers to follow a link or confirm data.

«It»s important to understand that government structures never send such requests via messengers or over the phone. Do not follow suspicious links, enter logins and passwords, or share data from push notifications. If there is any suspicion of fraud, hang up and call the organization back yourself. An additional protective measure is installing a solution on devices that will warn about fraudulent calls or attempts to visit phishing sites,« concluded Sergei Golovanov.

Alisa Kulishchenko, head of the international analytics group at Positive Technologies, adds that the schemes by which fraudsters try to gain access to Gosuslugi are not new in themselves. The basis of such attacks is the use of clone websites.

«Criminals call by phone, create a sense of urgency and psychological pressure, forcing the user to follow a link to a fake resource and enter their credentials or provide a one-time code from an SMS. At the same time, the scenario changes depending on the target audience: to elderly people, they present themselves as bank employees; to students, as representatives of educational structures. If successful, fraudsters gain the ability to view the victim»s personal data, arrange financial obligations in their name, and commit other unlawful actions, which entails significant risks and consequences,« notes Alisa Kulishchenko.

Such schemes can be recognized by characteristic signs: calls from unknown numbers, persistent calls to action, promises of easy benefits, requests to name confirmation codes or log in on an unfamiliar website.

The expert recommends carefully checking website addresses before entering data, not sharing confirmation codes and passwords with anyone, and using two-factor authentication.

Earlier, NGS wrote about a Novosibirsk resident who wanted to obtain intimate services and lost almost 50,000 rubles (approximately $500 at current rates) — fraudsters« scheme.