Criminals have developed a new fraud scheme to steal the funds of bank clients and are widely using it in Russia, the Russian newspaper "Izvestia" reports.

Fraudsters call different people and, posing as an employee of MTS or Beeline, report that the SIM card of their phone has expired. In order to update the card, fraudsters ask them to provide a special code received via SMS. Then they forward the calls and SMS messages to another phone number.

The newspaper notes that the attackers use the obtained data to access the victim's online bank, e-mail, social networks, instant messengers and even the portal of government services.

The representatives of the Central Bank of Russia have confirmed that the goal of fraudsters is to get this code from a citizen in order to be able to enter his personal user account in the mobile operator's system and redirect calls and SMS messages, or to convince the victim to do it himself.

It should be noted that in Armenia, there have been cases when the criminals made an online loan in the name of another citizen and called them under a completely different pretext, misled them to get the SMS code received on the victim’s phone, which they needed to pass the identification while filling out the online loan application.

Earlier, NEWS.am Tech reported that fraudsters in Russia call bank clients, pose as social service workers, and then convince them that they need to update their social cards. If the clients agree, they are asked to give their mobile phone number, clarifying that it is necessary to notify them via an SMS code that new social card is ready. However, that code is actually used to access the customer's online banking account.

Recently, a new fraud scheme has started spreading on Telegram as well, through which criminals mislead users and steal their money.