Fraud on the Internet - where to contact and how to protect yourself

Over the past few years, Internet technologies have deeply penetrated human everyday life. Today, banking, trade, services and entertainment operate successfully online. But with such technological breakthroughs, online fraud is also flourishing everywhere. As usual, the main goal of scammers is to lure money out of the user and disappear into the vastness of the Internet. In this article we will describe the main directions in which online scammers operate, and we will also tell you where to go to get your money back first.

Let's start with a description of the most common areas in which scammers operate. We will be based on our own experience.

Fraudulent online stores

This is the most common deception scheme that gullible users fall into. Today it costs nothing to create a fake online store and launch “trade” of non-existent goods on it. Advertising is ordered online, positive reviews are generated, and prices are quoted extremely low. All these subtleties lull the vigilance of users who send money to scammers without basic checks. Payments are accepted online and by cash on delivery, but all this happens before the fraud is discovered. With all this, the creator of such a marketplace remains in the shadows and is able to easily erase traces of his activities by simply deleting the site and blocking the “official” number of the store.

Fraud in online stores can be as simple as a seller accepting money and disappearing, or quite complex, where a whole scheme is created to sell substitute goods. Such a scheme involves official organizations and third-party recipients of money, so it becomes very difficult to prove the fact of deception. We have already written about such schemes several times; we recommend reading the article about PIM-MAIL LLC and the LLC Parcels Pro online store.

Deception through ad sites

In the case of advertisements, scammers work in two directions - they deceive both sellers and buyers. The standard scheme prevails: a person sees an ad, orders a product and makes an advance payment, but in the end nothing comes to him and the seller disappears. There are quite a lot of scam schemes with advertisements, and on the most popular resource Avito, scammers successfully bypass the special “Safe Transaction” function. Here are some examples:

• They write to the seller directly via (Whatsapp, Viber) and offer to purchase his product. Referring to a secure transaction, a fake electronic receipt indicating prepayment is sent to the seller’s email. After some time, the scammer writes that he has changed his mind and asks to send the advance payment back - people are fooled.
• They communicate with the buyer through messages on Avito, but “for convenience” they switch to a third-party messenger. Next, the buyer is sent a link to a fake website where he can make an advance payment (under the terms of the “Safe Transaction”). Very often people do not notice the substitution and transfer money.

  An attempt by scammers to provide a link to a fake website

Making money through subscriptions

Also very popular on the Internet is the scheme of issuing paid online subscriptions to second-rate services. Such services include dating sites, loan selectors, and online cinemas. The deception process involves hacking a bank card and linking it to purchase online services. A person simply discovers that a debit has been made in favor of a fictitious dating site. After contacting support, the person is shown a personally signed subscription.

This is the most difficult process for a defrauded cardholder, since it is very difficult to prove the intervention of third parties. It’s easy to guess that the owners of the service personally activate people’s hacked cards, but it’s impossible to prove this fact. As a result, hackers legally withdraw money from hacked cards.

To understand the danger and scope of such fraud, we recommend reading our articles about the dating site LoveDateme and the loan selector Qzaem.

“Legitimate” withdrawal of funds in favor of a Banando subscription

Deception through spam mailings

We will call the simplest and slightly naive type of fraud spam mailings that report a “million dollar win” or “inheritance under a will.” Such notifications must include a link to the scammers’ website, where you need to pay a certain amount to process the payment. Most often these are fake lotteries, fake notifications from the tax office, notifications about government payments. This type of spam is distributed via email, SMS, Viber or WhatsApp. Oddly enough, people fall for such alerts and transfer money by flashing their bank cards.

Spam from loan selection sites

Online fraud: types

There are many ways to deceive people over the Internet.
The ingenuity of scammers knows no bounds; new techniques are constantly appearing aimed at luring money out of Internet users. It is impossible to describe all types of fraud, so below is general information about methods of deception, grouped according to similar characteristics. Existing types of fraud on the Internet can be divided into 2 large groups:

1. Software. Money is written off from the user using special means: viruses, fake sites, etc.
2. Psychological. The basis for fraud is the human factor: users independently transfer money to the accounts of criminals, believing in the story they set out.

Fraud using software tools

Examples of online fraud carried out using various software include:

1. Phishing. A message is sent to your email/phone asking you to confirm your password to use a bank card or log into your account on a website. Fraudsters report that if you refuse to provide such information, access to the card or resource will be limited. The user submits the required data, after which the fraudsters have the opportunity to unlimitedly use the card or account in their own interests.
2. Debiting funds via SMS. To complete registration on the site or gain access to download a file, the user is asked to go through an identification procedure confirming that he is not a bot (a program that automatically generates new accounts or continuously downloads files from the server). To do this, the site owners suggest using a mobile phone. An SMS message with an access code to the system is sent to the number specified by the user. It must be entered into the appropriate field on the page that opens. The following are several possible scenarios:

• All funds on it are debited from the user's account;
• funds are debited not only from the account, but also from bank cards linked to the phone number;
• a subscription to paid services is automatically formed, as a result of which the user’s phone balance is regularly reduced by a certain amount.

1. Fake sites. Instead of the official website of a bank or online store, the virus program transfers the user to a fake website that has a similar design and differs by one or more letters/numbers in the domain name. The user, unaware of the substitution, places an order on it, pays for it, and the money goes to the fraudster’s account. The payer, of course, will not wait for his purchase.

Consumer error

A person who has been forced into a favor sometimes resembles a small offended child. He feels that he has been wronged unfairly and is in a hurry to find a large, formidable intercessor who will take revenge on the seller and frighten him. Probably, many people associate the image of such an intercessor with a district prosecutor in a uniform blue uniform. Not everyone reaches this step, but some still make timid attempts to write a complaint to the prosecutor's office. It doesn't occur to them that in most cases this is a waste of time.

The prosecutor's office does not directly deal with such issues and does not replace the decisions of relevant departments in this area. Therefore, the prosecutor’s office responds to such requests with a long-prepared standard response: contact those structures that are competent to consider such complaints.

Psychological Fraud

The following methods of online fraud fall into this category:

1. Imaginary charity. Treatment of seriously ill children, assistance to fire victims, restoration of churches and shelters, etc. - social networks are full of requests for help in such situations. Despite all the moral nuances of holding such collections, scammers often create fake pages using other people’s photographs and documents confirming the fact of their need for money. To protect yourself from this type of deception, you should transfer money only through large charitable foundations or, if the details of a private person are used for collection, require the presentation of original documents (or scanned copies with the id of the group or page through which the collection is made).
2. Selling a non-existent product or a product that does not have the stated characteristics. The buyer, seeing an attractive price, seeks to take advantage of the offer and transfers money to the online store or private seller. At best, he will receive products that do not correspond to the order, and at worst, he will be left without money and without a package.
3. Selling online courses. With the development of digital technologies, it has become easier to obtain the necessary knowledge: you don’t need to go to the library for a specific book, just download an electronic textbook or video lesson. There are decent video courses, the creators of which really understand the subject and share their knowledge with other people. However, there is a lot of various garbage on the Internet, purchasing which users waste their money. “How to make a million without any effort”, “How to build muscles in 2 days” are vivid examples of what courses you don’t need to buy.

Checking an online store for fraud

To avoid falling for scammers, you should choose only trusted online stores and not pay in advance for orders made through social networks or classifieds sites.

If the product is extremely necessary or the price is very attractive, you should check the online store for fraud before placing an order. To do this you can:

• Find out the domain registration date. If the site was created recently (a week or even a month ago), the likelihood that it is being used by scammers is extremely high.
• Read reviews on forums or specialized review sites. If there are no such reviews or they are negative, you should refuse the purchase. The abundance of the same type of enthusiastic responses should also alert you - most likely, they are custom-made and do not correspond to reality.
• Really evaluate the store's offer. Liquidation of a branded collection at a 90% discount from the initial cost, sale of confiscated goods, or sale of flagship models of electronic equipment at half price is most likely just a bait from scammers.

Which authority should I contact to file a complaint?

It should be taken into account that the conflict situation arose against the background of the purchase of goods. Accordingly, you should complain to Rospotrebnadzor, a service whose powers include protecting consumer rights.

Document submission procedure

In order to understand the conflict situation, the consumer will have to do the work of searching for information related to the online store and submitting a complaint to the authorities. Required actions include the following:

1. Finding the legal address and correct name of the company that owns the online store.
2. Direct contact to Rospotrebnadzor for initial consultation and further filing of a complaint.
3. Drawing up a claim in which it is necessary to describe the problem as accurately and in detail as possible.
4. Submitting a claim to Rospotrebnadzor in person or by registered mail.

It is important to find out to whom the case of the defrauded buyer is transferred. It is quite possible that as events unfold, additional evidence will arise that needs to be handed over to Rospotrebnadzor employees.

Internet fraud - how to get your money back

Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to recover money lost as a result of fraudulent activities on the Internet. Most often, scammers have minimal computer and legal literacy skills and accept money not to a bank card, but to an account that does not require identification confirmation (for example, to a wallet opened in the Payeer system), which complicates the procedure for finding them.

It will also not be possible to contact the scammer on your own and appeal to his conscience. Usually the telephone numbers indicated in the advertisements do not answer, and the copies of documents and information about the registration address provided are fake.

Contacting law enforcement agencies may give you a slim chance of getting your money back. How to do this is described below.

Consumer protection where to go and who to complain to

The first thing you need to do is to extinguish your emotions and turn on your insidious, cold mind. Yes, you were manipulated, but they acted not entirely honestly or completely dishonestly. You need to remember the details, save all receipts or checks, it is advisable to record dialogues on video or audio. Then take a pen or open your computer and start writing.

First step

The first organization to which you should send your application will be Rospotrebnadzor. It is the competence of this service that includes monitoring compliance with legislation by state, public and commercial institutions. And also the protection of you and me – consumers. We write the first complaint about the seller’s actions to Rospotrebnadzor according to these instructions.

If the offense was committed in line with the situation that I described above and concerns the imposition of an additional service, then we involve the Federal Antimonopoly Service. To do this, we are sending a second complaint to this body, which in the descriptive part will be identical to the previous one.

Second step: miles... police

Further. If the seller’s actions were accompanied by a rude attitude and, for example, he categorically refused to return your money for a non-working product that is still under warranty, then feel free to write a statement to the district department or the city Department of Internal Affairs. You can address your appeal to the head of the department for combating economic crimes. It is unlikely that the head of the OBEP himself will deal with your paper, but in this structure there is a small division, the name of which most often sounds like “the department for combating offenses in the consumer market.” This is where there will be an idle officer who will ask the director of the company not very pleasant questions. Thus, standing in your defense and helping to restore justice.

Involve management

Following. If the employee whose actions violated your rights is a representative of a large hierarchical structure, then you have a good opportunity to bring him to justice not through his immediate superiors, but through the punitive machine of the head office. Even if there are no obvious violations in the manager’s actions, the very fact of a complaint about his service can hurt the presumptuous employee. By the way, in the example described above, this is what happened. Therefore, we find out the hierarchy and subordination of the company’s divisions, find the coordinates of the head office and send our complaint there as well. Fortunately, such information can be found on the Internet without much effort.

Return money

Now comes the most important part. You probably need to return the money that was manipulatively taken from you by a rogue seller. To do this, you should contact directly the organization whose product was slipped to you. Attention! Not to the place where it was sold to you because, as a rule, the seller’s organization is not responsible for refunds, since it is an intermediary. You need to contact exactly the company whose name and details are indicated in the documents. In particular, I am now talking about additional insurance. How to return insurance is described in detail here.

Fallback option

And last but not least. If your appeals were ignored by Rospotrebnadzor, OBEP, FAS, then in this case you really have the right to contact the prosecutor’s office to conduct an inspection and bring the perpetrators to justice.

If in this case it was not possible to defend your interests, then filing a claim in court remains as a last resort. Resolving this issue in court will take time, but there is also a positive side to this situation: if the size of your claim is less than 1 million rubles, then you can do it duty-free.

Where to report online fraud

Despite the fact that the media and popular electronic resources constantly publish information about existing methods of deceiving the population, law enforcement agencies daily record hundreds of cases of dishonest actions against consumers of information. Where to turn in case of Internet fraud if you have encountered deception on the Internet?

First of all, the victim must submit a statement to the police department located at his place of residence. A separate division, the “K” department, has the authority to handle complaints regarding Internet fraud.

The application must indicate:

• Full name, passport details, registration address, contact phone number of the applicant;
• description of the situation that occurred: date, time, place where the fraudulent actions were committed, as well as the essence of the actions that led to the deception of the victim;
• date of application and signature of the applicant.

You can submit your application either in person or online. To do this, you need to follow the link https://mvd.ru/request_main and send the document (you can attach additional evidence of fraud to it: screenshots of pages, Internet banking receipts, etc.).

What to do if Rospotrebnadzor did not help in solving the problem

Based on the results of the internal investigation, Rospotrebnadzor is obliged to inform the applicant. However, contacting this authority does not always pay off - a deceived buyer may receive information about the impossibility of recovering the money spent and holding the online store accountable.

It is not recommended to leave the situation unresolved, because in the future other consumers may suffer from similar actions of stores conducting illegal activities. In addition, it is necessary to return the lost money, because often we are talking about serious amounts. Both public and private authorities can be involved in the proceedings.

Court

Litigation is a procedure that often involves additional costs on the part of the plaintiff. If the result is positive, the defendant is obliged to reimburse not only the cost of the goods, but also the money spent on litigation.

In order to file a lawsuit against an online store, you must correctly draw up an application. A sample of it can be found by contacting court staff or specialized lawyers. It is imperative to prepare evidence of fraud.

Note!

If the judge sides with the defendant, the online store will not return the money or pay compensation.

Consumer Protection Society

This structure provides assistance to buyers who are faced with unlawful actions of trading organizations in Russia. The work of the Society is not free. However, statistics of successful cases related to illegal actions of online stores show that the costs of assistance from the Company’s specialists are well worth the costs.

This applies to situations in which the subject of a dispute is an expensive purchase or the buyer has a difficult life situation due to problems with the product. The Company’s specialists involve various authorities in their work, achieving a positive decision, which is not always possible to achieve by contacting Rospotrebnadzor or the police.

Hosting owner

A rather controversial approach, the effectiveness of which does not always justify the time spent. However, it is still necessary to contact the owners of hosting sites that host problematic online stores.

Even if the deceived buyer cannot achieve justice, the assistance of the hosting administration will help obtain the necessary information about the persons responsible for the operation of the store. In the future, this information can be used when contacting the police, Rospotrebnadzor or OZPP.

If there is significant evidence of fraud provided by the applicant, the hosting administration can independently contact the previously noted authorities in order to deal with the scammers. In many situations, strong evidence also helps to achieve blocking of an online store, which will serve as a kind of punishment for its owner and protect other buyers from problems.

Punishment for online fraud

Responsibility for fraud (including fraud on the Internet) is provided for in Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The sanction of this article establishes the following types of punishment:

• a fine of up to 120 thousand rubles;
• a fine in the amount of the salary or other income of the convicted person received by him for a period not exceeding one year;
• compulsory work lasting up to 360 hours;
• correctional labor for up to 1 year;
• restriction of freedom/forced labor for up to 2 years;
• arrest for up to 4 months;
• imprisonment for up to 2 years.

Thus, the punishment for fraud on the Internet is not severe enough, even taking into account the legislator’s differentiated approach to its possible types.

Results

So, fraud on the Internet can be based on the use of special software tools that can withdraw funds from user accounts, or it can consist of a set of psychological techniques aimed at misleading the user, as a result of which he independently transfers funds to the fraudster. It is very difficult to recover money lost as a result of fraudulent activities. This can only be done if the criminals are found by law enforcement agencies and brought to justice.

See also: “Fraud using payment bank cards.”
You can find more complete information on the topic in ConsultantPlus. Free trial access to the system for 2 days.

Liability for misleading the consumer

The relationship between the buyer and the seller is regulated by the federal law “On the Protection of Consumer Rights”, the Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Offenses and the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. Thus, the store may bear administrative or civil liability.

Previously, criminal punishment could also be imposed for deceiving a client, but in 2003, Article 200 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation was abolished. For an administrative violation, the store is usually fined. But its size depends on exactly what rights of the client were violated.

• The Code of Administrative Offenses contains Article 14.7 “Deception of consumers”. According to it, for measuring, weighing or shortchanging a customer, a store as a legal entity faces a fine of 20 to 50 thousand rubles.
• Misleading the consumer regarding the consumer properties or quality of a product will cost the entrepreneur in the amount of 100 to 500 thousand rubles.
• If the seller has not provided reliable information about the product (Article 14.8 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation), you will have to pay from 5 to 10 thousand rubles to the state treasury.

In addition, a consumer whose rights are violated has the right to go to court . In this case, the store will face civil liability. The buyer has the right to demand compensation for damage, payment of penalties and compensation for moral damage.

We talked about the responsibility of the cashier and his employer for non-issuance of a check in this article.