What are the responsibilities for Internet fraud?

Fraud on the Internet, Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, is a new type of crime.
With the advent of Internet technologies in our lives, the number of scams and extortion has increased significantly. You can lose your money just by visiting some seemingly harmless site. Fraudsters have learned to deceive us remotely, sometimes in very sophisticated ways. This is a truly serious social problem that requires special attention. What article for online fraud regulates this offense, what are the most famous methods of deception and how is it punished? Multi-channel free hotline Legal advice on criminal law. Every day from 9.00 to 21.00

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Protection of consumer rights when purchasing in an online store

The Russian Federation Law on the Protection of Consumer Rights also applies to Internet users. Buyers' rights:

• to receive all information about the product;
• to provide a guarantee for the purchased item;
• to return your purchase within two weeks.

Important! When returning, you must show the receipt and packaging.

Small amounts

The spread of cybercrime is explained by the fact that scammers usually demand small amounts, rightly believing that deceived citizens will not contact law enforcement officers for a minor reason.
Surprisingly, it really works. In addition, the victim often does not have payment documents, which makes it difficult to establish the fact of fraud.

If there is only one victim of fraud in the case, the criminal's liability will be minimal even by a court decision.

Responsibility

Actions falling under Article 159 of the Criminal Code provide for punishment:

• theft - a fine of up to 120 thousand rubles, restriction of freedom for up to 2 years or correctional labor;
• if a group of people participates in fraud – a fine of up to three hundred thousand, imprisonment of up to 5 years;
• officials for theft over 50 thousand - a fine of 100 - 500 thousand rubles, imprisonment for up to 6 years or other punishment.

Important! If a group of people acts, the fine and prison term increase. Officials are punished more severely. Particularly large amounts of theft carry sentences of over 10 years.

Punishment for fraud on the Internet up to 1000 rubles

Fraudulent actions on the Internet involving theft of up to a thousand rubles fall under the Administrative Code and are punishable by fines of up to five thousand. The effect of Article 159 of the Criminal Code begins with fraud over 1000 rubles.

Fraud on an especially large scale

According to Part 2 of Article 159, an especially large amount begins with damage of 1 million rubles. But according to Part 7 of the same article, it is indicated in the amount of 12 million.

What threatens Internet scammers?

The type of punishment is influenced by factors - the number of people involved, the presence of malicious intent, the size of the theft. Types of punishment:

• fines;
• seizure of property;
• compulsory or correctional labor;
• restriction of freedom, arrest or prison term.

Arbitrage practice

Online fraud often involves theft of small amounts. But there are known cases of multimillion-dollar thefts from bank accounts, hacking of expensive software, etc.

Types of fraud

There are a huge number of types of crime, and their number is growing every day.

The most popular include:

1. “Nigerian letters”: everyone must have encountered them. A letter arrives in the mail from a rich man (his notary, crown prince, president, etc.) with an offer to receive a large sum of money. This may be the withdrawal of wealth from the country, the need to hide income, or receiving an inheritance from a lonely deceased person whose relative the victim resembles (or with whom she shares the same last name). If the victim is interested, an active correspondence occurs, during which the scammers ask to transfer a certain amount of money: to pay for services, prepare documents, and more. As soon as the money is transferred, communication ends abruptly.

If you receive such a message, you should never transfer money to scammers, even if they sent photos of documents and various evidence. It is especially tedious to be wary if the message came from the Nigerian state or a country in which a large number of such people live.

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2. Dating scams: It's pretty easy to fall for a scammer. A common option would be active correspondence and a casually asked loan to top up your phone, buy a webcam for conversations, etc.

Some time ago, a message appeared about another scam: a girl offers to go somewhere (for example, to the cinema) and sends a link through which you can book a ticket. The citizen enters all the data, pays for the reservation, after which both the site and the girl disappear. A distinctive feature of such fraud is the active interest of beautiful girls in ordinary guys and the desire to chat with him or definitely go somewhere.

3. Fraudulent stores: there are thousands of scam options - fake stores, sending a brick or a piece of newspaper instead of a product, etc. On VKontakte, one of the options was an offer to purchase a fur coat: the scammers offered to bring the selected models home for fitting, but asked to transfer them 999 rubles to pay for the courier. The victim transferred small amounts of money, after which her calls and messages were ignored. Due to the fact that the amount was less than 1 thousand rubles, the fraudsters could only be brought to administrative responsibility.
4. False patients: collecting money for treatment of children or homeless animals who are being treated at the expense of the state or paid for by relatives, that is, they did not place such requests. It is necessary to carefully study the information before sending money, and if possible call.
5. Fake prize draws or "lucky" casinos that are easy to win: If you haven't participated in something like this, don't respond to emails at all.
6. Requests to send money to relatives or friends: most often this is due to hacking of an account on social networks. Before sending help, you need to contact your friend and clarify your request.
7. Phishing: its goal is confidential information about a citizen, usually a login and password for a specific site. Most often, the scheme looks like this: the victim receives a letter from a popular store or bank in which they are asked to enter their username and password or follow a link. After clicking, the victim is taken to a fake website, which can easily be confused with a real official website. It asks you to log in to log in, after which the data falls into the hands of scammers. The latter can use them to carry out transactions with cards and withdraw money from electronic wallets.

To protect yourself from such fraud, you must stop clicking on links in emails. If you receive a letter from a bank, you must personally go to its website through a search engine, without using a link.

Good to know: one type of phishing is vishing: extorting information over the phone: posing as a bank employee, scammers may ask for confidential information that will allow them to interact with the victim’s card.

8. Pharming: A more modern version of phishing. It involves the introduction of a malicious program into the victim’s computer. Its task is to redirect the client to a fake site when he decides to go to the real one. In other words, when a citizen wants to go to the bank’s website and enters its address, the program intercepts it and changes it to a fake one. At the same time, the client is sure that he has come to the right address. The target is the same information, logins and passwords.

To minimize risks, you need to regularly update your antivirus, scan your computer and not open suspicious emails;

9. Click fraud: mainly poses a danger to stores and website owners. The program simulates a click on a banner or advertisement, which leads to an increase in the number of site views. After this, the owner of the site on which the banner was placed can demonstrate statistics and receive more favorable terms for concluding an advertising contract.

It is almost impossible to list all types of fraud, since new ones appear with enviable regularity. It is important to be alert and check all suspicious points, as well as tell the least protected people – children and the elderly – about the basics of computer security.

What should the victim do?

A user who has been deceived online should:

• contact the police with a statement;
• visit a consumer protection organization;
• write to support of the bank or electronic payment system.

Evidence base

It serves as documents - checks, contracts, screenshots of transfers. Video recordings and photographs of correspondence with scammers and their bank card information will be useful.

How to write a statement to the police

The police department will provide the victim with a form to fill out an application upon application.

Where to contact

When committing any crime, you must contact the police, prosecutor's office or other law enforcement agencies.

Today, thanks to the development of technology, it is no longer possible to hide in the virtual world.

It is worth noting that there is a misconception about small amounts: even if there is a fraud involving several hundred rubles, it is necessary to declare this: this is probably not the first time that the scammer has dealt in this way, therefore, he has accumulated a rather large amount.

Please note: in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Internet fraud is dealt with by Department “K”.

First of all, it is necessary to collect the maximum amount of evidence (screenshots, correspondence, calls), if possible, find “brothers” in misfortune and join forces. Afterwards, you need to draw up a standard application. It must indicate all known information: full name, card number, telephone number, any signs, virtual pages, etc.

Then you need to attach evidence: screenshots of correspondence, letters, audio and video, calls and messages. This will help create the most accurate picture of what happened.

You can submit an application:

• in person at the branch;
• notification letter;
• via the Internet: on the police website you can find a contact form.

You can also file a complaint anonymously by calling the hotline, but it is better not to do this: such applications are not considered as readily as those filed in a simple way. In addition, it is impossible to initiate a case based on an anonymous complaint - the police will only be able to check the fraudster.

Corpus delicti

Only persons who have reached the age of sixteen can be the subject of a crime.

From the objective side, a crime is characterized by the commission of actions aimed at stealing property, one of the alternative actions: entering false information, blocking, modifying data or other unauthorized interference in the normal functioning of the work of storing, processing and transmitting information using computer technology.

The subject of the crime may be:

• computer information;
• property, property rights;
• information and telecommunication networks.

From the subjective side, the criminal act provided for in Article 159.6 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation presupposes the presence of direct intent to commit certain actions.

What is noteworthy is that this crime is rarely charged alone, most often there are several offenses. About how the court makes appointments for a set of crimes - read the article here https://lexconsult.online/7858-sovokupnost-prestuplenii-priznaki-vidy-naznachenie-nakazaniya

You have listed the product on Avito - they are ready to send you money

What's happening: You are listing something on Avito. A potential buyer calls. He says that he really wants to buy, but can’t get there quickly, and offers to make an advance so that you don’t sell the lot to anyone else. It asks for your card number and code from SMS.

In fact: By calling the code, you confirm the transfer of money from your card. There is no way to get them back.

How to resist: Do not call out codes from SMS. To transfer money to your card, you only need its number.

Read on the topic: How not to lose money when selling things through Avito?

They offer to invest at 600% per annum

What happens: You saw an advertisement or were recommended a company that offers 400–600% per annum.

In fact: It is very difficult to obtain such profitability. Most likely, we are talking about a financial pyramid. Most likely, you will not receive any income or money invested.

How to resist: Invest only in proven financial instruments: deposits, securities, real estate, business. Even there you may make a loss, so do your analysis before investing.

You can earn a little money in banks, but there are more guarantees

Deposit calculator

Sudden prize winnings

Basically, the scheme is based on competitions for reposting, when the participant of the competition is simply cheated out of money, under the pretext of paying for delivery for the prize won, this can be anything from Monster Beats headphones, iPhone 7 smartphones, MacBook laptops and other expensive and desired gadgets .

At the same time, the scheme is so simple that it popularizes itself, it just needs a small push, namely a created fake account or a group that is maintained for some time as a real one, information is posted, friends and participants are added, and when a certain number is reached, a competition begins with the condition reposting an entry about the drawing of a valuable prize, which will ultimately be drawn randomly among the participants, which freebie lovers themselves distribute throughout the Internet.

When corresponding, scammers are very convincing; they often resort to sending photographs of prizes with a piece of paper on which your last name and id are written, which distracts the victim’s attention from the main thing. On average, according to open sources, from one such scam the average earnings vary from 400,000 to 1,500,000 rubles, depending on the number of participants processed.

If you receive a message about a win, check when it took place and whether there is a video confirming that it was you who won and, most importantly, you do not pay for delivery.

How to protect yourself

Given the variety of scams, it is quite difficult to always be aware of new methods of deception. Therefore, we can recommend being more careful and carefully checking the information before transferring money. For example, if an online store requires prepayment, then you need to look for real buyers who have already purchased goods.

You should not rush to transfer money or provide your information, even if a friend asks you to do so. You need to assume that a scammer is communicating with you. Therefore, it is worth making sure that the person you really know is writing. You can also recommend not to believe if they report a win or some kind of gift, and at the same time demand money. Because the winners are not required to pay even for delivery if the prize is real.

They offered a loan, but first you need to buy insurance

What happens: An unfamiliar bank offers a loan, but before that you need to meet with the courier to buy an insurance policy from him.

In fact: After paying for insurance, you, of course, will not receive any credit.

How to resist: Don't agree to a loan you didn't apply for. And if a real bank needs insurance, then ask about the rate without it and find out the list of accredited insurers where you can buy a policy, having previously selected the most profitable option.

Read on topic: Loans from scammers: how criminals deceive citizens

Purchasing a bill of exchange instead of registering a deposit

What's happening: You come to the bank to open a deposit, but the employee offers a bill of exchange whose yield is higher.

Fact: There is a chance that you will lose your money. This happened to some clients of the Asia-Pacific Bank: they purchased notes from a company that had no income. At the same time, the state does not insure investments in bills of exchange, unlike bank deposits.

How to resist: Don't invest in financial products you don't understand.

Read on the topic: Toxic instruments: three stories about unsuccessful investments in a bank

They call and promise high returns

What happens: You get a call from some brokerage company. They offer to come to lessons and earn 40–50% per annum on trading “without much effort.”

In fact: Most likely, you are calling from a forex company. There is a high risk that you will quickly lose your investment. Ordinary brokers rarely impose their services and certainly do not promise high profitability, if only because the law prohibits them from guaranteeing profitability.

How to resist: Ignore offers. After the first call, add the phone number to the “black list”.

Read on the topic: Bad advice: 5 ways to be guaranteed to lose on Forex