Stoloto, the largest distributor of all-Russian state lotteries, and Group-IB, one of the leaders in the field of cybersecurity, discovered and blocked 23,685 resources in 2021 that acted under the guise of popular state lotteries and illegally used the Stoloto brand. Of these, 22,590 were fraudulent sites, 1,021 were fake accounts and groups on social networks, 74 were fake mobile applications, and five email addresses were identified from which phishing was sent.
According to Group-IB analysts, the activity of scammers working in the lottery segment increased significantly in the second half of 2021 — scammers became more active during new waves of coronavirus and restrictions imposed. If from January to June only 7,306 fraudulent sites were blocked, then from July to December this figure already reached 15,284. The number of mobile applications disguised as Stoloto brand also doubled: from 25 applications in the first half of 2021 to 49 applications in the second half of 2021. Large growth was observed among fake pages and social media groups. If in the first six months only 127 such resources were discovered, then in the second half of 2021 - already 894.
One of the trends in 2021 was the use by scammers along with classic phishing and clone sites of “hybrid schemes” — along with traditional phishing, fake mobile applications are involved, as well as correspondence in instant messengers with representatives of “state lotteries”.
Stoloto and Group-IB remind the basic rules that should be followed in order not to become a victim of scammers:
never follow suspicious links: scammers can infect your computer or phone and steal your data. Use only the official Stoloto app and the website www.stoloto.ru;
do not tell anyone the codes from SMS and push notifications; card details: PIN and CVV codes; personal data;
f you have changed your mobile phone number or email address, be sure to notify Stoloto. Otherwise, there is a risk that your data will get to the new owner;
when buying tickets online, always check all the details of transfers and payments;
use antivirus software.
If they called you and introduced themselves as an employee of the state lotteries, remember that the representatives of Stoloto:
they do not ask you to provide your personal data, card number and one-time password from SMS to confirm a financial transaction by phone;
they will not ask for a code from SMS to cancel, as it were, “performed fraudulent transactions”;
they do not offer to install remote access programs (TeamViewer, AnyDesk, RMS, RDP, Radmin, Ammyy Admin, AeroAdmin) on the computer.
“The level of involvement of citizens in the digital space is increasing every year, and the number of fraudulent attempts is growing accordingly. However, the fight against Internet fraud is always at the forefront for Stoloto. We carry out this work 365 days a year, 24/7, together with partners and law enforcement agencies. Our well-coordinated interaction allows us to effectively and timely eliminate risks for consumers and fight against fraudulent schemes. In addition, we are constantly improving our work in this area, which allows us to successfully counter online fraudsters,” said Ekaterina Tuton, Deputy General Director for Sustainable Development of the S8 Capital holding, which includes Stoloto.
It should be noted that since 2014, all lotteries in Russia have been state-owned, their organizers are the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Sports of the Russian Federation, and they are held under state supervision of the Federal Tax Service of Russia. State lotteries under the Stoloto brand are a significant source of replenishment of the budgets of different levels of the Russian Federation in order to finance socially significant objects and events, including events for the development of physical culture and sports, elite sports and the sports reserve training system - thus making a commensurate contribution to improving the quality of life of Russians. The listed targeted deductions from lottery activities to the budget of the Russian Federation with a total cumulative total at the end of 2021 amounted to 17.6 billion rubles. The total amount of transferred deductions and fees to the budgets of different levels of the Russian Federation (including targeted deductions) from lottery activities with a total cumulative total at the end of 2021 amounted to 37.2 billion rubles.
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