Banks warn of a new fraudulent scheme with a “check” of cards

VTB experts revealed a new scheme of social engineering – scammers on behalf of employees of banks or government agencies convince the interlocutor to transfer a bank card to them for her “verification”. As a result, the victims lose not only their own funds, but also become involuntary intermediaries (drops) in withdrawing the money of other victims.

Fraudsters call the Russians, introducing themselves as employees of banks or law enforcement agencies. Under the pretext of unauthorized transactions, a loan or threat, they force the victim to name the PIN code of the card and transfer the card itself to the dummy courier, which comes to check the authenticity of the card, set the protection or to untie the card from the account. The PIN-code is asked to say in a telephone conversation, dial on the phone or enter on a special site by link.

Further, fraudsters withdraw the money of the victims through an ATM (using the received PIN code), and the card itself is used to cash out the funds of other victims. In addition to losing their own funds, scammers turn anything an unsuspecting victim into a drop – an intermediary in a criminal scheme.

“Fraudsters play at the fear of people, simulating official organizations – banks, law enforcement agencies. Their goal is to make the victim voluntarily give the card to make maximum. It is important to understand: when you transfer the card to the Courier of the Bank and communicate the codes from SMS, you do not just risk your money – but involuntarily become the link in the criminal scheme. Fraudsters deliberately choose tactics so that the victim, without suspecting it, participates in the cashing of other victims. When compromising a bank card, you need to immediately block it in one of the ways: to call the bank's contact center or independently through an online bank. An operational action will help prevent unauthorized use of funds, ”said Dmitry Revyakin, VTB Vice President, Head of the Department of Corporate Interest in the Security Department.

He added that the demand for drops of scammers remains stably high. “The banking market is actively working to complicate the dropper activities. VTB uses many methods to combat them, including monitoring transactions in real time, the use of analytical tools and interaction with law enforcement agencies and other banks. Now banks began to identify more drops. For example, in 2024 – more than 148 thousand dropper, which is 5.5 times more than in 2023. During the year, VTB blocked more than 1.5 billion rubles stolen from customers. More than 380 million rubles were returned to the victims for two years from the brace accounts. We are actively involved in the implementation of anti -Perman policy and supports the creation of new mechanisms for a successful struggle with them, ”said Dmitry Revyakin.