Alexey Ershov, Deputy Director of the Research Center of the Federal Tax Service of Russia and Bauman Moscow State Technical University, highlighted the danger of confirming any information when talking to fraudsters in an interview with RT, calling such affirmations “stop-words”.
According to the cyber expert, it is extremely risky to provide fraudsters with confidential data such as codes from SMS or bank notifications, as well as personal information: passport details, SNILS, TIN, bank card numbers, and passwords. This information can be used by criminals for blackmail or theft.
Ershov clarified that while a recording of the word “yes” itself is not legally binding, it is extremely dangerous to confirm information with words like “correct”, “agreed”, “confirm”, “transfer”. Such confirmations can give fraudsters confidence in their actions.
The expert also mentioned that fraudsters only need 3-5 minutes of audio recording to create a basic deepfake of the interlocutor`s voice. A larger volume of material – from 15 to 30 minutes – is required to create a higher quality and more convincing fake.
Separately, Anton Nemkin, a member of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Information Technologies, and Communications, warned about an increase in fraudulent calls made allegedly on behalf of “Russian Post”. A typical scenario for such calls involves a message from a pseudo-sorting center about a package issue and a subsequent offer to go to a Telegram bot to “clarify” details or “confirm” identity through services like “Gosuslugi”.
