Fraudsters have devised a new scam targeting Russians on Telegram. They are reportedly hacking user accounts and recording video messages, presented as being from someone celebrating their birthday, to request money transfers.
One reported incident details how, after a birthday celebration, a fraudster accessed the account of the person who had the party. The scammer then sent a video message («kruzhok» — a circular video format in Telegram) to a friend, mimicking the birthday person`s appearance and voice. In the video, the scammer falsely claimed to need a 20,000 ruble transfer for a photographer`s fee, stating they were unable to complete the payment themselves.
The victim was deceived and attempted the transfer. Although the first two banks blocked the transactions as suspicious, a third attempt using a different bank was successful. After confirming the transfer, the victim checked the chat conversation with the «birthday girl» only to find the messages had been deleted. The bank later informed the victim that the transferred funds could not be recovered.
This development follows previous reports indicating that scammers are increasingly utilizing phishing websites to defraud Russians. These fake sites are most commonly designed to imitate legitimate online shopping portals and investment platforms.
