Виды банковского мошенничества
Banks accumulate funds of individuals, store them, and provide loans. Deficiencies of security systems often lead to the fact that the funds of both citizens and enterprises, customers of credit institutions, and the banks themselves become the prey of fraudsters. There are many ways of theft, but the most common types of fraud are schemes with ATMs and bank cards.
Regular crimes and aggravations
Article 159 “Fraud” of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation introduces several additional types of offenses for which theft of funds from banks or their clients can be qualified. One of the main ones is Article 159.1, which provides for liability for fraud with a loan. Article 159.3 directly introduces liability for fraud using bank cards. Article 159.6 "Fraud in the field of computer information" concerns responsibility for stealing money from the accounts of citizens or legal entities using modern computer programs. Besides, when investigating bank frauds, inspectors can detect deliberate bankruptcy, forgery, and abuse of office.
Bank card fraud
Most of all, citizens who have chosen this type of enrichment as theft of funds from someone else's bank cards are in the dock. Scammers use the tricks of experienced fishers, offering interesting "bait" to the owners of bank cards. This technique is called phishing. With its use, thanks to the carelessness of citizens, tens of thousands of cases of fraud occur a year.
Phishing
Fraudsters use several standard mechanisms for stealing money:
- a call from a would-be bank employee or even its information security officer. The fraudster told a client about suspicious account activity and asked to name the CVV – the code for checking the card's authenticity by the payment system. Do not tell anything because any information can be used for theft. Better to interrupt the call and call back your bank manager yourself;
- a letter from the bank to the email. The link in the letter leads to an analog of a personal account, in which you need to enter your username and password. Banks never use this method of working with clients. Only fraudsters can send letters to personal email with a proposal to provide personal data, card number, or enter your username and password signed by a bank employee.
The analog of phishing is pharming. But this method is more complicated and only works with small banks. It is impossible to replace the official page of Sberbank with a fake one and gain access to the online bank of citizens, but using the capabilities of DNS servers, you can do this with small credit institutions. In Russia, information about such cases was not reported to media outlets, because either this type of theft was not used, or the bank security services prevent the leakage of dangerous information to the media that could damage reputation.
Phones and other mobile devices
If the Mobile Bank is installed on a mobile device, then visiting web sites that can launch a virus program into the device and replace the Internet Bank window with an appropriate design is possible. It is necessary to be extremely careful about any, even minimal, changes in the interface. At the same time, such fraudulent programs can simultaneously block the receipt of SMS messages about withdrawing money from the account. Failure to receive a message about the completion of a particular operation is a signal to update the anti-virus software.
A lost mobile phone with Internet banking installed on it is a scammer's dream. Although browsers do not remember passwords for entering a personal account, a virus program can read the password. Based on this, it is necessary not only to think about the safety of mobile devices but also to be attentive to the situation when a mobile device is sent for repair.
Internet
Paying for programs, books, music, goods purchased on the Internet, you often need to enter your card number. The money for the purchase is debited, and the happy owner of the new game does not think that his card number could become known to fraudsters. The interception can be carried out using the programs installed on the seller's web site, and then the money will be debited from the card.
This risk can be avoided if, by paying for goods via the Internet:
- keep money on a special bank card, to which more funds are not transferred than is necessary to make one purchase;
- use virtual bank cards;
- do not use unsecured and suspicious web sites;
- install the Secure Code service.
A new way to steal
Recently, fraudsters have tried another modern way to steal funds from plastic cards using mobile communications. From the number 900, which shows that the message came from Sberbank, a message arrives offering to send a response SMS to confirm or cancel the money transfer. Then the frightened client receives a call from 8-800-555-5550. The person who introduces himself as a bank employee confirms the need to send an SMS to cancel the transfer. If the client does this, then the money goes away. Using modern mobile communication technologies (Caller ID) fraudsters replace their phone numbers with the numbers of a bank.
ATM Fraud
ATMs are less likely to fall prey to fraudsters, security cameras pose a certain danger to criminals, but they also end up on the pages of the criminal chronicle. Most of the ways to steal funds using ATMs came to Russia from the West. They require the use of special technical devices.
Skimming
This is the installation of a small device into the ATM that copies all data from the magnetic line of a bank card. Together with it, a device can be installed to remove information about the pin code when it is entered. Interestingly, such devices can be installed in stores. They copy information when purchasing goods with payment by a bank card. The skimming device is offered for sale for only a few hundreds of dollars, which leads to the fact that ATM employees find them up to 1200 times a year.
If you assume that this equipment is installed at an ATM, contact the bank via the "hot line" (its phones are available on almost every ATM) and to clarify whether the institution uses anti-skimmers.
Lebanese loop
Sometimes criminals try to steal a bank card as a physical object. The card reader is equipped with special devices that capture the card and prevent the user from receiving it back. It takes him a few minutes to contact the support service while fraudsters are trying to remove the plastic from the ATM themselves. The latest models of ATMs exclude the possibility of using this method of theft; the card will remain in the device until collectors appear.
ATMs are constantly being improved. In Russia, the risks of suffering from skimming and other similar types of fraud are minimal. But on tourist trips, it is necessary to remember the existence of these types of dangers and withdraw money from ATMs of unknown foreign banks as rarely as possible. Cases of installing counterfeit ATMs are not uncommon abroad. They show the malfunction of the software while reading all the necessary information from the bank card.
How money is stolen from ATMs
In the spring of 2018, banks themselves began to suffer from ATM fraud. A new virus has appeared that infects the devices. After that, when a certain sequence of numbers is entered into it, it withdraws cash to the attackers. While the widespread use of this method in Russia is unknown, but banks have begun to change the software to prevent this virus harm.
Credit fraud
A frequent problem is a fraud in the credit sector, which implies the execution of a loan agreement or the receipt of funds without the intention of returning them. For the court to recognize the non-return of funds to the bank as a banking fraud or fraud in the field of lending, the following signs must simultaneously be present when a crime is committed:
- premeditated intent for non-refund of funds already after a bank loan agreement;
- providing the bank employee with knowingly false or inaccurate information about the borrower and his solvency, deliberate misleading;
- the lack of a real opportunity to repay the debt, or instant cash out of the loan amounts, their misuse (in the case of borrowers, legal entities).
So, recently, a borrower of Promsvyazbank was arrested. Investigators found his intent to steal bank funds and deliberate non-return of loan funds received for the companies under his control. Loans for 6,5 million dollars, based on the position of the investigators, were not used for business needs. The defendants disposed of the money at their own discretion. In total, the number of unpaid funds exceeded 52,6 million dollars.
Such high-profile cases are more common in troubled banks, most of the attempts at credit fraud are committed in the field of consumer lending. The most common types of it are a consumer loan for a small amount for the purchase of goods in a store, in which the borrower is checked by scoring programs according to the information provided to them, and car loans, because of which the car – the subject of the pledge – is allegedly stolen. The risks in the second case are borne by the insurance company.
Recently, a new type of money fraud has emerged for both banks and customers at the same time. The emerging investment companies that do not have a license to operate in the financial markets offer retirees to take out loans and give money to them for management, offering a high income. Such companies rent offices in prestigious business centers and use aggressive advertising. As a result, both clients who lose their money transferred to fraudsters, and banks are affected. If the banks have the opportunity to return their funds by bringing pensioners to court, then the victims are unlikely to see their money when the investment company disappears along with the office.
Investigating credit fraud and recovering funds in cases where the perpetrators of the crime are trained professionals requires the highest qualifications from both bank security officers and law enforcement agencies. At the time when it is clear that the funds will not be returned to the bank when a criminal case is initiated, they are withdrawn, sometimes abroad, and legalized, and companies are bankrupt. At the same time, the features of the functionality of the security services do not allow them to understand the intricacies of financial schemes, the investigating authorities also do not yet have rich experience in investigating this type of crime, especially when traces of stolen money lead abroad. It is necessary to appoint complex examinations, establish a chain of links in order to prove the presence of intent to commit fraud. How well the evidence of intent is hidden depends on how deeply bank employees are involved in particular fraud. Any deliberately prepared scheme can be attributed to the financial crisis or difficult life circumstances, but evidence of collusion with bankers will help remove the court's doubts about the intent to steal.
The ways of taking over other people's money, associated with deception and abuse of trust, or with the use of modern technical means, are diverse. You can protect yourself from them only with absolute attentiveness. You cannot fall for the tricks of scammers.
23.11.2020
