Russia (bbabo.net), - The number of victims of cybercriminals and telephone scams is growing exponentially. Last year, the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs registered more than 500,000 such crimes. Russians receive up to 100 thousand suspicious calls a day, and every day someone gets hooked by scammers: they transfer money to other people's accounts or give their PIN codes and passwords, and as a result, they are left without funds. Irina Pankina, First Deputy Chairperson of the State Duma Committee on State Construction and Legislation, Chairperson of the Bashkortostan Branch of the Russian Lawyers Association, spoke at a business breakfast about how to resist fraudsters, why lawyers decided to join the fight against cybercrime.

Irina Aleksandrovna, why do you think cybercrime has gained such great momentum lately?

Irina Pankina: The rapid growth of cybercrimes is caused by a combination of reasons. One of the main ones is the massive transition to the online space: from receiving government services to shopping. Of course, the pandemic also played a big role here. Many people have switched to "distant", and now even work can be carried out from anywhere. This spurred the transition to the information space and criminals, who can now also "work" without leaving their homes.

In addition, today the protection of personal data is not at the proper level. As soon as you leave your phone number on the network, a telephone attack begins from pseudo-security services of banks and pseudo-law enforcement officers who report that the account has been hacked, you need to urgently transfer money. Criminals come up with more and more new schemes. For example, citizens began to receive notifications allegedly from the portal of state services about detachment from the clinic due to a technical failure and offers to register again by paying a "fee", while registration on state services is free.

This year, fake websites of real stores and organizations have become a popular fraudulent scheme. Fraudsters create an identical interface, change a couple of characters in the address bar and, in order not to miss the buyer, lower the price tags. As a result, buyers lose money and do not receive goods.

Cybercriminals are also motivated by relative impunity, because according to statistics, most of the criminal cases for online fraud are suspended, since the investigation fails to identify the accused. In 2020, the Ministry of Internal Affairs registered more than half a million such cases, but less than 25 percent of them were disclosed. The number of cases that go to trial with an indictment is even sadder - seven percent. The reason is the complexity of the investigation and collection of the "digital" evidence base. After all, we have a conservative law, and the judicial process is tailored to the previous norms of legislation. It is important for us to adapt it to digital reality. This task is now facing the legislators.

In addition, another reason for the flourishing of cyber fraud, in my opinion, is the low legal and digital literacy of the population.

In the summer, we conducted a sociological survey among students and teachers of Bashkir universities. The results surprised us. When asked "Do you know what digital rights are?" 80 percent of the respondents answered in the affirmative, however, most of them in the paragraph where it was necessary to explain in detail what it is, wrote: "the right to access the Internet." By the way, among the respondents who indicated such a definition, there are also teachers.

And how can lawyers help in this case? Are you planning to do education?

Irina Pankina: Including. People turn to the regional branch of the Russian Bar Association (AYRA) with many legal questions, but this year there has been a steady upward trend in complaints about cyber fraud and identity theft. Most often, the victims, unfortunately, were retirees. Criminals cynically hone their skills on older people, and pensioners themselves often sincerely wonder what they did wrong, and why it is impossible to sign contracts without reading or tell someone your PIN code and SMS from the bank. To prevent them from repeatedly confronting fraudsters, we conduct explanatory work with older people.Let me clarify: within the framework of federal and regional laws, the Association's lawyers provide free legal assistance to various categories of socially unprotected citizens. These are the disabled, the poor, large families, orphans, foster parents, veterans, unemployed pensioners and many others. In Bashkiria, there are only five state bureaus providing such assistance, but thanks to the extensive network of the Bashkortostan branch of the Russian Lawyers' Association, which includes 51 branches, this year professional lawyers helped almost four thousand residents of the republic who needed it especially for free to solve problems. The goal has almost been achieved, and next year we plan to open branches in all districts of Bashkiria.

In addition, the online center for free legal aid "Prosto Pravo" has been operating in Ufa for six months, where residents of Bashkiria can apply and receive free legal advice. In the same center, the Bashkortostan branch of the AYR holds joint receptions of citizens with various departments of the republic. This is a kind of legal analogue of the Republican Governance Center.

The nearest plans of our department are to launch the "Safe Internet" campaign. Experts will tell schoolchildren the basic rules of behavior on the Internet, conduct tests to identify and help fill knowledge gaps.

I want to emphasize that we are planning to create a call center in the republic to provide free legal assistance.

Will this call center be designed for people with disabilities, veterans, orphans and large families? How will it work?

Irina Pankina: The call center will help the least protected categories of citizens who are legally entitled to free legal assistance, at least at the initial stage. Now we are working on technological issues in order to simplify the process and launch the project in a pilot mode based on the AYR. Operators will be able to answer calls from residents, they are professional lawyers who will record the appeal, and then, depending on the specifics and complexity of the issue, either transfer it to the district office, or resolve the issue at the regional level with ministries and other departments. Thus, we perform two tasks at once: on the one hand, we help a specific person, on the other, we get an idea of ​​the directions in which there are legal gaps.

If a person has already become a victim of scammers, for example, when shopping on the Internet, what should I do?

Irina Pankina: Today, not all victims report fraud, as they are sure that it is impossible to return the money. But this is not the case. In the case of a purchase, you must write a complaint to the official seller and contact Rospotrebnadzor, and then, as in any case of fraud, you must file a complaint with the police. It is important to collect all available data (names and nicknames on social networks, electronic account number, legal address of the organization, account statements, etc.) and take a screenshot of the correspondence. All these details can help in the search for the offender and the investigation of a criminal case. I would like to note that during the trial you will be able to claim compensation for moral damage.

Key question

What can you say about the legal literacy of Bashkirian officials?

Irina Pankina: To begin with, state and municipal employees, of course, must know the law well. Recently, in order to "refresh" the knowledge of employees of ministries and departments, we, together with the leadership of the All-Russian Anti-Corruption Dictation project, conducted such a dictation within the framework of the VII All-Russian Legal Forum. Previously, only law students took part in this event.

The results of the regional officials turned out to be quite good, but still there is something to work on. I think in the future we will conduct such dictations on an ongoing basis at least once a year. In my opinion, it is necessary to create a special educational platform on which state and municipal officials and deputies could continuously acquire new knowledge and get acquainted with changes in legislation.

By the way

The Bashkortostan branch of the Russian Lawyers Association has been operating for 14 years. At the end of the third quarter of 2021, it took first place in the all-Russian rating.

Number

10 thousand cybercrimes were recorded in Bashkiria for nine months of 2021.

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