MOSCOW. Millions of Russians face a barrage of calls from scammers and spammers monthly, highlighting that no one is truly immune to such attacks. According to Petr Alferov, Beeline`s Anti-Fraud Director, the first critical step when encountering fraudsters is to verify access to your “Gosuslugi” (Public Services) account.
Beeline has documented instances of extremely persistent attacks. For example, in 2024, one case involved over 17,000 call attempts to a single victim within a day. The intensity of these attacks can be staggering; in April 2025, one potential victim received approximately 8,000 calls in just three hours.
“Every month, Russians receive hundreds of millions of calls from scammers and spammers. No one is safe from phone and online attacks, and fraudsters often prove to be well-equipped and highly persistent. Fraudulent attacks represent a significant contemporary security challenge. While most people are aware of these threats, even a prepared individual can be disoriented if scammers act brazenly and aggressively,” Alferov emphasized.
Essential Steps to Protect Yourself:
- Verify Gosuslugi Access First: When faced with a suspected scam, it`s crucial to first ensure you retain full access to your “Gosuslugi” account.
- Check Other Key Accounts: Subsequently, verify access to your internet banking and mobile operator`s personal account.
- Refresh Messenger & Social Media Sessions: After these initial checks, it`s recommended to log out and then immediately log back into all your messenger and social media profiles.
- Review Message History: “Review your message history to confirm that scammers haven`t sent out messages to your contacts,” Alferov advised.
- Terminate Suspicious Sessions: “In your messenger settings, navigate to `Connected Devices` and immediately terminate any suspicious sessions.”
- Strengthen Passwords and Enable 2FA: The expert also strongly recommends setting new, strong, and unique passwords for all services. Furthermore, enabling two-factor authentication (2FA) wherever possible is vital. These measures will significantly hinder unauthorized access to your accounts and protect your data across all connected platforms.
- Contact Support Immediately: Should you encounter any issues accessing an account, it is imperative to immediately contact the support service for that specific platform, whether it`s the “Gosuslugi” portal, your bank, or a social network.
