The criminals call citizens through special apps that allow them to impersonate phone numbers (Photo: ShutterStock)
"Look what a sting they tried to do to me just now," tweeted an Israeli named Katia recently.
"They supposedly called from the bank, in Russian, to tell me that 6 minutes ago they received a suspicious charge for the amount of two thousand NIS.
I answered in Russian: 'Can I talk to someone in Hebrew?'
The caller asked what was wrong with Russian and I answered that I am more comfortable with Hebrew.
So she said 'Speak in Hebrew' and hung up."
A tweeter named Ilya replied to Katia: "When you call me in Russian, I answer in Hebrew.
100% of the time they don't know Hebrew.
It is clear that a Russian-speaking employee of any real body in Israel also knows Hebrew.
" "A family friend of ours received a similar call two weeks ago," added another tweeter. And another tweeter concluded the discussion: "The same thing happened to my partner not long ago.
When he asked to speak in Hebrew, the guy who called him tried to impress upon him that the bank's official offices are in Moscow and that's why no one speaks Hebrew."
It is not surprising that Katya, Ilya and the others experienced these cases.
In recent times there have been many telephone fraud attempts aimed at expatriates of the Commonwealth of Nations in Israel.
Members of cyber crime groups have obtained databases containing details about such Israeli citizens, call them and impersonate various entities - from security bodies of banks and credit companies to the Israel Police.
All with the aim of stealing money from them on the sly.
They try to carry out the theft in two ways: the first is to instruct the victim to give the identification details to his account on the Internet and then impersonate him and use them to withdraw the money from the account.
The second is instructing the victim to withdraw money from his account and transfer it to accounts abroad through money changers.
The criminals call citizens through special applications that allow them to impersonate phone numbers.
This way, the real phone number of the bank can indeed be seen on the phone screen of the recipient of the call.
They claim that a fraud has been committed on the customer's bank account and that he should act quickly as a result.
In order to establish the credibility of the claim, they even send fake photos of official IDs on WhatsApp: a policeman's ID, a bank employee's ID, etc.
During the call, pressure is put on the victim of the fraud to immediately transfer funds from his account or provide identification details of the account under various pretexts.
Those who fall into the trap find out after a few days that they were defrauded and that their money is now in foreign accounts with no way to trace them.
All they have left to do is to file a complaint with the police - which most likely will not lead to the thieves being caught and the money returned.
According to Sharon Kasper, Director of Cyber Awareness and Prevention of Information Leakage at Bank Hapoalim, recently more and more cases have been observed in which innocent citizens receive these impersonating phone calls, leading to the theft of money from their account.
"The sting drills focus on the population of immigrants from the Commonwealth of Nations and older citizens and take advantage of the fact that they have difficulty identifying fraud and sometimes even have difficulty communicating with the environment and thus trying to verify the caller's claims. From here, the path to withdrawing all the money from the account 'because the manager from the bank said so' and transferring it to foreign accounts - which is what has been done "Mostly through currency conversion and exchange services - what is called 'Tsing'," he says.
Fake certificate of a visa worker (photo: Public Relations)
Inform about the outline of the fraud
so how can the fraud be prevented?
If you are the potential victim, first of all refuse to speak in any language other than Hebrew with the person who calls you supposedly from the bank/credit company/the police.
Only this action will filter out the criminals, as Katya was able to do.
If you are not sure that the caller is an impostor (and bank representatives really do call us sometimes, for one reason or another), know that it is not possible for him to ask you to transfer your money from your bank account to any other account.
Straightforward: there is no such thing.
If you receive a request from any party requesting the identification details for your account - do not provide them, no matter what.
Here, too, there is no situation in which such a request would make sense.
If you are still not sure that this is not an impostor - proactively contact your banker and verify the caller's claim with him.
How important is it to inform relatives about the fraud plan?
How can relatives and friends from the Commonwealth of Nations be helped not to fall into this trap?
Tell them about the scam.
It is possible that you will be the ones who will save them from it and save them from losing a lot of money and heartache.
Emphasize to them all the points made in this article.
Knowing them will make it easier to turn on a red light in case of attempted fraud.
"We at Bank Hapoalim instructed the employees of the fraud system that in cases where Russian-speaking customers come to the branch and ask to withdraw funds from their account in an unusual way - they should be informed about the outline of the fraud," Kasper says.
"We informed all bank employees that the cybercriminals may be able to impersonate our phone number in their communications with our customers and that if the employee receives a phone call from a customer claiming to have been called by the bank - to report it immediately to our security center."
technology
privacy and security
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Cyber