Scammers have started calling Russians, pretending to be accountants.

      04 November 2025 15:39 Incidents

      A new telephone scam has been detected in Russia. Perpetrators call citizens posing as accountants from local administrations and tell them that they are entitled to a payment or must appear in person to process documents. The Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs warned about this, as reported by 360.ru.

      During the call the fraudsters give the exact appointment time, the office number and insist that the documents cannot be processed remotely. At the end they ask the person to dictate passport details—supposedly to issue a temporary pass.

      In reality, the scammers use the obtained information to build trust and convince the interlocutor to provide one-time SMS codes. With these codes the criminals gain access to bank or personal online accounts.

      Then "law enforcement officers" or "security specialists" often join the conversation, frightening the person with messages about a data breach or violations.

      Experts note that the scheme works because of the convincing official tone and precise details—such as the appointment time and office number. As a result, the victim perceives the call as an ordinary administrative procedure and lets down their guard.

      Earlier, Nizhny Novgorod residents were told how scammers use social engineering.

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