People scammed by phone, Russia fines network operator

Most scams in Russia start with a mobile call - Illustration: iStock

The Petrodvortsovy District Court of St. Petersburg has fined mobile service provider Megafon 600,000 rubles (nearly $7,000) for allowing calls from fake phone numbers.

Earlier, the prosecutor's office of the Lomonosov district, Leningrad region, pursuant to Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation on telephone fraud, accused Megafon of failing to fulfill its obligations to terminate the provision of communication services and the transmission of traffic to its network in cases provided for by Russian law.

Specifically, an 84-year-old Megafon customer received a call from France with a subscriber number from mobile service provider VimpelCom. However, according to VimpelCom's data, no calls to the victim were recorded from this phone number. This is evidence that the phone number used to make the call was spoofed.

The Lomonosov District Prosecutor's Office filed a lawsuit against the telecommunications operator, defending the interests of the victim of a telephone scam. The agency demanded that the operator recover the money stolen by the scammers and compensate the victim for moral damage.

The watchdog explained that when a network operator fails to act and allows a scammer to make a call, it is providing an improper communication service and causing property damage to the subscriber.

Most scams in Russia start with a mobile phone call. The number of calls from people pretending to be police and bank employees is up to 20 million per day. According to statistics, victims transfer about 44 million rubles to scammers every day, equivalent to 15.8 billion rubles per year.

From the end of 2022, mobile phone operators will start using the "Antifrod" (Anti-Fraud) system to block suspicious calls. By February 28 this year, all mobile service companies must connect to this system.

Very little money recovered from scam calls

According to the Ministry of Digital Development, in 2023, 575,000 phone numbers used by scammers to call were blocked. However, scammers quickly switched to calling via messaging software (WhatsApp, Viber, Telegram).

Experts from the Central Bank of Russia say that victims of telephone fraud in the country are usually working women aged 25-44, with a secondary education and an average income, living in cities.

In 2022, only 4.4% of defrauded customers got their money back, totaling 618 million rubles. In 2023, this percentage increased to 8.7%, with 1.38 billion rubles.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/dan-bi-lua-dao-qua-dien-thoai-nga-xu-phat-nha-mang-20240702154502821.htm