Hello, dear readers of the business magazine website! There are situations when you need money right now. Not everyone has deposits or nest eggs where they can urgently take the required amount of money, for example, for a wedding, an apartment, a house, or to open their own business from scratch.

Many have no idea where to quickly get (find) these funds and frantically go through all their friends in their minds, remembering which of them they can borrow from. It’s good if you have at least a few days to find money. And if just a few hours? Even if money is needed quite urgently, it can be obtained through legal means.

From this article you will learn:

• Where to get money right now;
• Who can you borrow money from?
• Where can I get money for free and is it possible to get it for free?
• Where can I get money if all banks and microloans refuse?

So, let's start in order!

What to do if you need money? Let's look at the main ways you can get money, even if all banks and microloans refuse

1. Where can you get money right now - 8 useful tips 📌

Some people mistakenly believe that in order to find money, you need to work as hard as possible, and the only destiny of the unemployed is to beg. But this is absolutely not true.

There is an opportunity to get money from an unemployed person Always. It is possible, for example, receive an inheritance or win the lottery. We talked about this in one of our articles.

In the first case you need to have rich relatives who are ready to die in case of urgent financial difficulties of the heirs. A in the second - you need to be very lucky. Both of these happen very rarely, so they are not suitable as a way to quickly make a profit.

So how can a person quickly get money without working? Next you will find simple tips which will suit most people.

Tip #1. Get rid of unnecessary things

In the cartoon “Prostokvashino” the cat Matroskin convinced: “to sell something unnecessary, you must first buy something unnecessary”. You just need to think carefully about what things have not been used for a long time, but are in good working condition and can be useful to others. For example, for some reason you do not use your personal car, you can sell it. we already wrote in our last issue.

On the Internet there are many free bulletin boards where sales advertisements are posted without leaving your home.

The main thing in this method is to do more high quality photos things you plan to sell. After all, no one needs a pig in a poke.

Note!

Of two advertisements, the buyer will always choose the one with the photo, even if its price is a little more expensive.

You can sell used equipment, clothes, shoes, crafts and anything else.

Selling online is not the only way to get rid of unnecessary things for a fee. You can also take them to a flea market, have a garage sale, or use thrift stores.

If you don’t want to part with things forever, you can always pawn them at a pawnshop and get a loan.

The attractiveness of this method is the speed of its implementation. They won’t check your income certificate or find out for what purposes they were needed.

But the disadvantage is that pawn shops don’t take everything. Preferably jewelry, household or office equipment.

Note!

It is almost impossible to sell clothes or shoes to a pawnshop; they are considered slow-moving goods and are not in demand.

The estimate of the cost of the item is also not encouraging; the pawnshop will not offer the real price for the item. They will carefully calculate the wear and tear and even lower the price for jewelry with a tag.

To redeem goods from a pawnshop, a certain period is set, after which the item is put up for sale.

If you need the pledged item and want to return it over time, but this cannot be done on time, you can only pay interest on the loan and extend the pledge period.

It is important to be able to assess your chances; regular trips to renew the collateral relationship at the pawnshop will lead to the fact that a person will not earn money, but, on the contrary, will only waste money.

Tip #3. Create something you can sell

It’s worth approaching the issue of selling unnecessary items creatively and do something truly unusual.

You can, for example, create a notebook of ten wishes, beautifully design each page and think of unusual texts on each.

Any representative of the fairer sex will be delighted with such a useful and creative hand-made item. This means that there will definitely be buyers for this kind of product.

This method is especially good on the eve of International Women's Day or Valentine's Day.

Good way for those who have financially secure friends. But you need to be prepared to receive a refusal and not be offended by them.

Modern people rarely keep money at home, they understand that it is safe and profitable to deposit funds and receive a stable income. Accordingly, few people will want to withdraw their deposit ahead of schedule and lose interest just to help out a friend.

Take note!

If friends are not rich and lend their last money, then there is a high probability that the lender will demand that the funds be returned to him earlier specified line.

In order to use this method, you need to prepare a convincing story (or legend) about why you needed the money so urgently.

No one wants to borrow for unimportant purposes.

In addition, nothing spoils a relationship more than debts not repaid on time. The borrower risks losing friends forever, and they, as you know, are more valuable than money.

Tip #5. Rent out real estate

It all depends on where you live and the availability of an alternative place of residence.

Here are some suggestions:

1) If you have a dacha outside the city, you can move there during the warm season.

Of course, this will create some inconvenience, but financially this decision will be immediately justified. After all, housing is rented out only on an advance payment basis and often several months in advance.

Don’t forget that you can also rent out the dacha itself. If it is located in an ecologically clean place, near a pond or forest, there will be many people who want to spend the summer there.

If there is no dacha, the option of renting out the property still remains.

2) You can rent out one of the rooms of the apartment.

This, of course, will introduce some inconvenience into a measured life, but you can monitor the condition of your property every day and not think about how carefully your tenants treat it.

3) If the apartment is located in prestigious area, then you can rent a house on the outskirts and rent out your own.

The difference between the cost of renting apartments in different parts of the city can differ by two to three times, the main thing is to carefully monitor the prices in advance.

Tip #6. Recycling of materials

The first thing that comes to mind is homeless people collecting bottles. This, of course, is also an option, but far from the only one. A couple more tips:

1) You can collect waste paper.

Every apartment has deposits of old newspapers, magazines, books and other paper products that will never be useful again. As a favor, you can help your neighbors get rid of such junk.

People are happy to get rid of trash and give it to strangers, just so as not to carry it themselves.

2) You can collect plastic, glass, scrap metal, wood, etc.

But you need to store it somewhere; it’s simply inconvenient to hand it over to the collection point every day a little.

How to quickly find a job, complete it urgently and get paid right away - 5 great opportunities

It is a mistake to believe that work is limited to payment wages once a month. There are many ways to get paid straightaway after completing the task.

Possibility 1. We distribute flyers or advertising booklets

The pay for such work is low, but this occupation does not require skills and experience.

Salaries are paid every day upon completion.

Good oratorical skills will be a plus if a person knows how to interest passers-by and beautifully talk about the advertised product - such an activity will take a few hours.

But the lack of a well-delivered speech will not be a hindrance; flyers can be distributed silently. It will take a little longer, but will not affect payment.

Possibility 2. Cleaning

Organizations that provide cleaning services charge dearly for their services.

Full apartment cleaning pays well. Therefore, having worked hard for a day, you can earn from several hundred before several thousand rubles It all depends on the amount of work.

And if the owners really like the quality, it is possible that they will invite the person on an ongoing basis or recommend using his services to friends, which will provide a stable income.

Possibility 3. Furniture assembly

At first glance, the task is complicated, and without experience it is impossible to do it yourself. But furniture assemblers very often require helpers.

This kind of work, in addition to daily income, is also good for useful skills.

After working as a helper for some time, a person will learn the intricacies of assembling furniture and, over time, will be able to provide this type of service himself.

You can also get a job as a helper at a construction site. The work is hard, but in demand.

Possibility 4. Care

It is a mistake to think that only older people can be cared for.

When going on vacation, many people need to find someone who will take care of their house plants, pets, and aquarium fish.

Doing this kind of work is easy and profitable.

Possibility 5: Speculation

In simple words – buying with the aim of selling at a higher price. You can resell anything that is in demand.

For those who are able to wake up at dawn and own a vehicle, the ideal option would be to buy groceries in the village and resale them in the city.

Residents of megacities love to buy homemade milk, eggs and other products, but they are too lazy to travel to buy them.

This work will take hours 5-6 in a day. If you work hard every day, soon all your products will be bought up only by regular customers.

You can resell household, office equipment or cars. Is it true You can’t do it without investments, for the first purchases of goods you will definitely need money.

Tip #8. Make money on the Internet

2.1. Advantages of microloans

Let's look at the main advantages and nuances of the microfinance system:

1. Processing speed. There is no need to wait several days for approval from different specialists. Funds are issued almost instantly, usually within an hour from the moment of application.
2. A passport is enough. Microloan company does not require proof of income or other documents. It is enough to provide the only document - a passport.
3. No hidden fees. All amounts that are subject to refund are specified in the contract. Payments are divided in equal parts for the loan period. At the time of registration, the borrower clearly understands how much he needs to pay monthly to fully repay the loan.
4. Availability. There are quite a lot of pick-up points in any city; there is no need to travel from one end of the locality to the other.
5. Confidentiality. The borrower does not ask for what purposes the money is needed. It does not matter. Besides no guarantor required, which means that no outsider will be privy to the history of lending. The loan will be known only to those persons whom the borrower deems necessary to personally inform.
6. Possibility of receiving online. Some companies offer microcredit without the client's presence in the office. The application is submitted online and is also considered, and the funds are received to a bank card. Repaying a loan using this method is also possible; you can transfer funds from a bank card while sitting at home at your computer. Read about the features and stages of obtaining in a separate article in our magazine.

There are a lot of companies providing microloans. Your task is to choose an option with favorable conditions, spending a little time analyzing the microloan market.

Moneyman — the company serves customers entirely online. After registering on the website and filling out the application, the solution will be ready in 15-20 minutes. Loan terms: First loan amount up to 10 thousand rubles, subsequently up to 70 thousand rubles. Percentage per day – 1.85. Money is transferred at the client’s request to a card or account.

Kredito24 - the company provides microloans within 10-15 minutes. Simply fill out an application on the website. Early repayment or extension of the loan is allowed. Conditions: amount up to 30 thousand rubles. Up to 30 days. Not checked credit history, no proof of solvency is required. The loan is provided with a passport.

Lime-Zaim - the company provides loans under the following conditions: amount up to 30 thousand rubles. (for the first application 9 thousand rubles).

The rate is individual for each client. The average rate per day is 2.16%. Quick decision making, instant loan issuance.

When making a decision, you need to remember the following:

1. The interest on such a loan will be higher than usual Bank loan.
2. Large penalties for late payments. Payments must be made on time, or even better, a few days before the deadline. On the last day, payment may not go through for some technical reason and payment of a penalty will be inevitable.
3. If it is not possible to pay the full monthly amount, you must pay interest. The amount of debt will not decrease, but no penalty will be charged.
4. If you apply online, you must go through the registration procedure. This means that you will have to enter your personal data. Internet fraud is now gaining momentum every day, so there is always a risk that personal data may fall into dishonest hands. It’s better to spend a few minutes before applying for a microloan to verify the borrower's credibility: call on the specified number, Google the address and find out whether this microfinance organization (MFO) is really located in the specified location.
5. If credit funds are transferred to a bank card, and not issued at the cash desk; the bank has three times to process the payment banking days. And if the transaction takes longer, then interest will begin to accrue for the use of the loan before the funds are actually received.
6. Don't borrow more than you need. The “extra” money will quickly be spent, but you will still have to pay it back, and with interest.

14 ways to get money quickly and legally

3. Where to get money for free and for free - 14 proven ways 💰

It is certainly possible to earn money without making any effort and without having certain abilities:

• Can buy tarot cards, open chakras And start predicting a bright future for those around you;
• You can become surrogate mother and bear a child to strangers;
• Winning a lottery or gambling can replenish the budget immediately and possibly without paying taxes to the state.

But all these ways illegal, and their use can lead to places not so remote.

Let's consider only those that will really help quickly and legally get money.

So let's get to them!

Method number 1. Donation

The method is suitable for physically healthy people.

This method can only be called free of charge, because the donor always gives his material in exchange for money. But it doesn’t require much effort or time to use it, with the exception of organ donation. But, Firstly, sell organs in our country forbidden, and this article discusses only legal ways making a profit. A Secondly, this is a very lengthy procedure; several years may pass from the first tests to the selection of a suitable candidate.

And here You can donate blood or plasma in a couple of hours. But you will also have to spend time searching for a clinic where they buy blood at an expensive price. Very often, such procedures are completely free or the cost is so low that there is no point in even spending money on travel to the transfusion station.

Important!

We must not forget that you cannot donate blood more than once a month, this harmful to the body.

You can sell your hair. But only those that grow on the head. The sale of vegetation from other parts of the body is not in demand.

Long, strong, healthy and most importantly undyed hair can be bought for a decent amount. Different salons offer different prices for hair. If you have time, it is better to monitor the cost in different places and choose the most expensive one.

The disadvantage of this method is that you can use it once every few years and then wait for the hair to grow back.

The most expensive method is sperm donation. IVF centers buy male seminal fluid at high prices. Women's eggs are also in demand, but for obvious reasons they are not as easy to donate as sperm.

When choosing this method, you need to understand that the biomaterial is taken for a reason, but for reproduction.

Method number 2. Experiments

Large and sometimes even very large sums are paid for scientific or medical testing on the human body. But before starting this procedure, each person signs a document stating that has no claims to its consequences.

Note!

Often, restoring normal functioning is more expensive than the amount that was earned in this way.

Method No. 3. Become a sitter

With this idea, you need to go to an art salon and offer them your beautiful body. A good way for those whom nature has endowed perfect figure. But if you can’t stay in shape without a gym, then the money you earn will only be enough to pay for sports activities.

Method number 4. Ask for money for free

Relatives, friends or just acquaintances can give a small amount not borrowing money, but simply free of charge.

It is very important to be able to ask correctly and tell why you need money so urgently. It’s clear that no one will give anything for nothing to buy another handbag or pay for a game of tanks.

People around me willingly share money for treatment and all sorts of romantic things. But You shouldn't lie about your health This is unethical and vile. But it’s always appropriate to bring in amorous affairs. Many, not even as a favor, but with pleasure, slightly sponsor the implementation of unusual romantic ideas.

It is also worth mentioning the collection Money through crowdfunding platforms. we wrote in one of our issues.

Method No. 5. Stretch your memory

There were not always financial difficulties. Perhaps “forgetful” debtors are a thing of the past and it’s time to remind them of themselves.

Method number 6. Ask the state

And it's not a joke. The main value of the state is people. Many programs have been developed to help the poor. Let's look at the most important ones:

• The Federal Service for Labor and Employment guarantees help in finding a job. At the same time, the time of such searches is paid. You won't get much bang for your buck on unemployment payments, but it's better than nothing at all. This is not an option for the lazy. To register, you will have to run around for certificates, and then regularly come to report to the service. After all, their goal is not to provide the unemployed with money, but to help them find a job in their specialty.
• Subsidies. It would seem, what relation can they have to earnings? But if you calculate how much is spent on utility bills per month, perhaps the reason for the constant financial crisis will become clear. Subsidizing will help reduce the cost of housing services. This means there will be a little more money left in your wallet for other expenses.
• Development of your own business. The state allocates start-up capital for the development of small and medium-sized businesses. It’s not enough to just have it in your head, you need to be able to present it correctly. Write, calculate expenses and planned income, payback period of the project. To receive a government loan for business development, you need to pay taxes in a law-abiding manner. If there is tax debt, the business plan will not even be accepted for consideration.

Method No. 7. Grace period for credit cards

To obtain a bank loan for a short period of time, it is not necessary to go to the bank every time. One time repayment is enough. If you return your Great Danes within this period in a disciplined manner, there will be no additional overpayments.

Initially credit limit usually does not exceed 10 000 rubles. But stable, timely repayment of debt leads to a gradual increase in this limit.

It's useful to know one trick: You can have several credit cards.

The scheme is simple: We withdraw funds from the first credit card, use the grace period, and when it ends, we withdraw from the second, pay off the debt on the first, and so on.

But you need to understand that the error is in calculating the end grace period at least for one day will destroy the whole scheme. Interest will accrue on late payments and it will be impossible to avoid overpayment.

The most profitable offer credit cards:

Alfa Bank offers several lending options: 1) “Classic” visa card with an amount limit of up to 300 thousand rubles. and the period of interest-free use of the card is 100 days. 2) If you need a large amount of money, you can issue a Gemini card. You can apply for a limit of up to 600 thousand rubles. Basic conditions are standard.

You can apply for a card online. Loan amount up to 350 thousand rubles. Installment is free. Issuance and account maintenance are also free.

Sovcombank offers a new installment credit card “Halva”. When retail outlets and the bank interact, the client is provided with an installment plan for the purchase up to 12 months without an increase in the price of goods. Payments are made using the Halva card. With this card you can pay for all purchases without down payment, the main thing is that the store is a partner of the bank.

Tinkoff Bank - decor credit card in online mode. It is enough to register on the website and write an application. To consider the application, a passport and another document are required. The decision to open a credit limit is made within 15 minutes. The card can be obtained at the bank office or it will be delivered to the place of request (the service is free).

VTB Bank of Moscow offers to get a credit card with the cheerful Russian name “Matryoshka”. You can order a card on the website online.

Cash back is offered in the amount of 3% on all card payments. The limit on the card is 350 thousand rubles.

The first year of service is free, the next two years free service at revolutions on the card in the amount of min. 120 thousand rubles. in year. Interest-free period 50 days.

Method No. 8. Ask for help online

Do not confuse this method with fraudulent schemes that are replete with the World Wide Web! We are talking about a request, so we immediately discard any untrue, pitiful stories about a dying relative.

It is optimal to ask for women's forums, the contingent there is compassionate. The main thing is to think through your request to the smallest detail, to be able to interest your interlocutors, and to stand out from the rest.

There are quite a lot of people on well-promoted forums, and even if every third person sends 10 rubles each- the amount will be impressive.

This method is also good if you urgently need money to buy a certain item. For example, the only sneakers are torn, the baby will be born soon, but there is no crib, nothing to wear, etc.

If you correctly voice your problem on the forum, then a lot of site visitors will gather to help solve it. Surely someone will have extra sneakers of the right size, an unnecessary crib that there has been no one to take away for a long time, etc.

Method number 9. Find treasure

And it's not a joke. Will help with this metal detector. Of course, it is not in every person’s closet, but finding this device is not problematic; there are many offers on the RuNet for both sale and rental. And even if there is no money for rent, you can always agree on a temporary exchange for something from your own things.

This is one of the most enjoyable ways to earn money: took a metal detector and walked through the fields and meadows to breathe fresh air. The device beeped - the goal was achieved, all that remained was to dig up the treasure and, according to the legislation of the Russian Federation, give half to the owner of the land in which it was located. But the second half remains, isn’t it a freebie?

Method No. 10. Begging

During the Soviet era, begging was a criminal offense, but now the law does not prohibit us from asking our neighbors for help, which means this is one of the legal ways earnings. It also needs to be approached creatively.

Of course, you can just stand with your hand outstretched in the passage, but it won’t be as effective as picking up a guitar and showing off your talent or making up yourself as a living statue and amusing those around you.

Method No. 11. Participation in talk shows

This method of earning money is gaining more and more popularity. A person simply participates in the filming of a program; the cost depends on the role to be played.

They pay for participating in the filming of a TV show as a mass viewer. from 150 to 500 rubles.

There are practically no special requirements for extras; it is enough to look decent and listen to the director.

It is much more profitable to act as the main character; fees for this work range from a thousand to several tens of thousands rubles But it’s not easy to get such a role; you’ll have to go through a casting first.

Method No. 12. Marry for convenience

The easiest way to get really rich. Suitable for both women and men. About getting rich from scratch, we have already talked about in one of our issues.

Together with decent money you can get a lot additional bonuses: status in society, the opportunity to eat well, relax at expensive resorts.

But calling this method the most profitable method of earning money will not work, since it has one significant minus. Advertisements for searches for a poor life partner cannot be found either in newspapers or on the Internet.

Method No. 13. Become a YouTube star

A successfully filmed and posted video will allow you to turn from an ordinary person into a popular and recognizable one.

Even teenagers know that for clicks on advertising when watching videos this resource pays money .

Cost per clicks depends on the age of the channel, the number of videos posted on it, as well as interested subscribers.

For more information about how much YouTube pays for watching videos, read one of our articles. There's a lot in it useful information for those who want to start from scratch.

Method No. 14. Take a bank loan

Most money is stored in financial institutions, namely in banks.

Banks are specially created to give interest.

Another purpose of the bank– storage of savings at interest, but in the context of this article there is no point in considering it.

Banks give loans for cars, apartments, furniture, vacations, repairs and even for treatment. By the way, we talked about this in more detail in one of our articles.

Benefits bank lending in comparison with a microfinance organization (MFO) are low interest rate And long term lending. The bank does not give money to everyone.

Main criteria for issuing a loan in Russian banks

The borrower must meet the following criteria:

• Have an official stable income. Confirmed by a certificate of income for the last six months from the place of work. Without this document, the loan will not be issued unambiguously.
• Having a positive credit history. However, not every credit history is maintained. separate bank. All these institutions are combined into one register, and data on each loan is entered into it. It indicates whether the debt was repaid on time, whether there were any delays, and all negative nuances are displayed.
• Guarantor. This is a person who guarantees to fulfill obligations instead of the borrower if the latter does not pay on time. If you take out a loan for a large amount, the bank may require you to find several guarantors. And this is quite problematic; even relatives do not want to take on the responsibility of fulfilling other people’s obligations.
• Pledge. Not indicated in all, but only in loan agreements for large sums. Pledge can be issued as real estate, so vehicles. You need to understand that in case of non-payment of the loan, the bank will take away mortgaged property to yourself.
• Insurance. It is important for the bank that the borrower is alive and well until the obligations are fully fulfilled. Therefore, loan issuance is often possible only after registration insurance policy. And these are additional costs.

Today the following banks offer the most favorable loan offers:

IN Sovcombank You can get a loan for various purposes: buying a car and apartment, for large expenses and urgent needs. Loans are issued from minimal package documents for workers and pensioners under 85 years of age.

Alfa Bank - one of the most reliable and stable credit institutions in the country. Works for financial market more than 25 years. Provides up to 3 million rubles for any purpose for a period of 1 to 5 years.

VTB Bank of Moscow - strong and reliable bank. Provides a wide range different loans. Consumer loans individuals are provided in the amount of up to 3 million rubles. With interest rate from 14.9% per annum.

We also wrote about this in a separate article - we recommend reading it.

How to apply for a loan correctly:

1. Read the contract carefully. Even Bank employee will say that the agreement is standard, everyone signs it and no one has any problems. You need to read every line, especially what is written in small print. The borrower must understand the terms early repayment, whether there is a Additional services and how they are charged, late fees, etc.
2. Choose the optimal loan program. Each bank has several lending programs. You just need to take a calculator and carefully calculate which one is most profitable to use.

Remember a simple rule: The easier and faster it is to obtain a bank loan, the worse its conditions and the greater the overpayment of interest.

Good advice: It is better to spend a few days on paperwork, but get money on more favorable terms.

Details about where and how are described in our separate article.

Where to borrow money urgently with a bad credit history if they refuse everywhere - more on that later

4. Where to get money if all banks and microloans refuse - 3 ways out of a situation when you urgently need money ✅

If your friends refused to borrow, your credit history was bad and they didn’t give you a loan, but you couldn’t make money on the Internet, don’t despair. There is always a way out and, as a rule, more than one. You just need to look for it well. What to do if financial institutions refuse to lend?

Exit 1. Ask for a loan from a private investor

Private investor– this is also a lender. Why not contact him? He also does not need income certificates, a passport is enough. But you will have to tell why the money is needed and from what income you plan to return it. Without a convincing story, you shouldn’t even contact private owners; there will definitely be a refusal.

Features of obtaining a loan from a private investor:

• If there is a deposit– the chances of getting such a loan are high. But there are also risks. We talked about this in the previous publication.
• It is very difficult to verify the investor's honesty. Fraud in this area is rampant. Worth a look

Groups of criminals specializing in electronic extortion of money thrive on the Internet. As a rule, attackers receive money through one of the payment systems existing on the Internet: WebMoney, Yandex. Money, e-gold, PayCash. The Complaint Center, which collects information about Internet crimes, annually registers more than 200 thousand statements from defrauded users.

Thieves do not always need deep knowledge of computer technology. For some, to achieve their goals, it is enough to master psychological influence techniques. Simply put, to force the victim to pay money for a non-existent product or service, a gift, a prize, an opportunity to earn money high interest rates on investments, etc.

The innocence and gullibility of some network users is amazing; the thirst for easy money is what ensures the success of the business of electronic scammers. Victims, without hesitation, part with the amounts that the scammers ask to transfer to their accounts. As a rule, attackers receive money through one of the payment systems existing on the Internet: e-gold, PayCash, WebMoney, Yandex. Money.

Such services are a convenient mechanism for committing and hiding traces of crimes, because you can open an account and work anonymously. The American Complaint Center, which collects information about Internet crimes in the United States, annually registers more than 200 thousand statements from defrauded consumers. But this is just the tip of the iceberg. Not all victims report damage caused by online thieves, who are attracted to the Internet by the opportunity to act anonymously, and therefore, in most cases, with impunity.

In Russia, statistics on such crimes are not kept, but, according to Internet market players, the number of victims of cyber fraud is growing in proportion to the increase in the number of network users.

Virtual shopping

Russian scammers use the same tricks as American or European scammers to deceive consumers. Only the earnings of domestic Internet criminals are lower than those of their colleagues from the United States and Western Europe - less than 35% of the population uses the Internet in Russia.

One of the most common online scams is the sale of non-existent goods and services through online auctions and stores. Most often, mythical lots are put up at auctions. The seller, in order to attract buyers, offers the product at a deliberately reduced price. If auction participants suddenly have doubts, the scammer always has a couple of legends in store. For example, he will explain that the goods were provided by customs or that he received the item as a gift.

Three years ago, at one of the well-known online auctions, a service participant put up expensive equipment and cars for sale. Beautiful pictures depicting the product and its description attracted the attention of many site visitors. They bought a product, transferred money to the seller, and in the package where they expected to see the purchased laptop, they received only a photo of it. It was not possible to bring the fraudster to justice . He stated that he did not deceive anyone, but was selling pictures. The inventive seller was excluded from the list of auction traders, but the unfortunate buyers were never returned the money.

Consumer forums are inundated with complaints about online stores allegedly selling household appliances and mobile phones confiscated by customs. P substitutes trading platforms They attract their victims with prices for products that can be purchased from them for 30% of the real cost. The buyer pays for the purchase, but never receives the goods. This kind of business is mainly carried out by students, and big money he doesn't bring it to them. Usually, "confiscat" sellers earn only a few thousand dollars a month.

If the buyer has become a victim of deception, he can contact law enforcement agencies (such crimes are classified under the article “Fraud”). However, given the small amounts that, as a rule, are lost in online stores and at auctions, consumers are reluctant to report to the police. Usually authorities contact extreme cases when official money was spent on the purchase.

“The likelihood that the case will go through all stages of the investigation, end up in court and the culprit will be found is too small. Following common sense is the single most correct way to protect yourself from scammers on the Internet,” says Andrey Boginkevich, a lawyer at the Bondar and Bondar legal bureau.

It is better to make purchases in trusted stores that post on the website detailed information about yourself, including the full name of the legal entity, address, telephone numbers. Conscientious sellers, as a rule, are not afraid to disclose such data. If you have the opportunity to choose a payment method, it is better to pay the money to the courier after delivery of the order.

To reduce the risk of an unsuccessful purchase at an online auction, you should pay attention to the seller’s rating among other service participants, the number of transactions completed and reviews of them, as well as the contact information left (if the seller only has an e-mail, it is better to refrain from purchasing) . Experts advise not to enter into transactions with stores from West African countries and Romania, whose auction reputation is low.

Make money

The volume of online payments by Russians doubles on average every year, and tripled by Muscovites. About 25% of purchases are paid for electronically through special payment systems - WebMoney and Yandex. Money, where upon registration the client receives his account - a web wallet - is another target of attacks by Internet fraudsters.

Often young hackers try to hack the wallets of various payment systems. You can gain access to them by infecting the owner’s computer with a Trojan, spyware, or a virus that steals passwords and sends them to the scammer. “Scammers rarely undertake such attacks, because as soon as another virus appears, new version software there is protection against it. Writing “Troyan” is a labor-intensive process,” says Nikita Senchenkov. In addition, the fraudster never knows how much money is in the wallet; for example, it may turn out to be empty or with a small amount (Russians usually pay with electronic money for goods worth up to 2,000 rubles). Hacking a wallet is not always economically justified, and the number of infected computers is relatively small.

However, in the arsenal of Internet swindlers there are other ways to enrich themselves at the expense of others. As soon as the first payment systems appeared on the Russian-language Internet, scammers began to make money by selling programs generating money on Web-Money virtual wallets. Their creators convinced that you just need to open a wallet, deposit money into your account and start the generator, and the contents of the wallet will double. The miracle program cost only $10, so it was in great demand among Internet users. Within six months after the release of the pseudo-generator, hundreds of sites were selling it. “I suspect that the scammers who were the first to sell the WebMoney generator turned into millionaires,” says Nikita Senchenkov. Victims of scammers learned that the program did not have the miraculous ability to increase the amount of money in their accounts after they had already spent money on a pseudo-generator.

Following the Web-Money generators, advertisements appeared on the network for the sale of programs that increase the amount in Yandex wallets. Money, programs for free Internet access, replenishment card generators for mobile communications, schemes that allow you to win at online casinos. But now you can’t earn much from selling them - users have become more literate and rarely buy them.

In pursuit of easy money, scammers switched to “magic” wallets. To the client payment system They offer to send a small amount of money to a specific wallet and receive 2-3 times more within a few hours. “Here is the new magic wallet: Z002482297295. Accepts from 1 to 20 wmz (virtual currency unit WebMoney, equivalent to $1. - Approx. ed.), the return is 2-3 times greater within 24 hours. The wallet works great, the only downside is it's slow. I’ve been using it for a week and there hasn’t been any scams yet.” You can find many similar advertisements on the Internet.

First, out of curiosity, the user transfers a small amount, usually $1, to the specified wallet and after a few hours receives $3; inspired by the success, he transfers another $5, which turns into $15. Having finally grown bolder, the victim risks a more significant amount - usually $50-100, but this money is not returned to her. Fraudsters do not deliberately pocket change, forcing the victim to believe in the “ball”, lose vigilance and send a large amount. "Magic Wallet" - quite old way deception of Internet users, but nevertheless there are always those who try to earn three strangers for one dollar.

Payment systems try to track “magic” wallets and block them. In addition, there are blacklists on the Internet of wallets believed to belong to scammers. Therefore, before sending electronic money to an unfamiliar account, it is better to look at these lists and make sure that the money does not go to a swindler.

Spam and funds

Spam is the simplest and most convenient tool for a fraudster to reach a mass audience. Electronic mailing is inexpensive, and it is more effective than telephone calls or sending traditional mail. According to estimates by the American antivirus company Semantec, the share of spam in the total volume of emails reaches 70%. About 50% of spam comes from the USA, another 7% from other countries of Eastern Europe, 4% are from China.

Nigerian spam, which became widespread in the 1980s with the advent of the Internet in Nigeria, is considered a classic of electronic fraud. The scammers, posing as a king, a president, a millionaire, or a high-ranking bank employee, asked for help in transferring funds abroad. In the letter, the fictional millionaire says, for example, that on his bank account there is a large sum of money, earned in a not entirely honest way, and invites the person to cash it out. The recipient of the letter is promised several million dollars as a reward. During the correspondence, it turns out that the accounts in which the money is located have been arrested, and in order to receive the funds, the victim is asked to send $2-10 thousand to Africa for fees, bribes, and so on.

This technology for luring money has been adopted by modern scammers. They send letters on behalf of charitable foundations asking for financial assistance, inform about winning a large prize that can supposedly be obtained by paying taxes, and offer work from home typing or translating texts. But to begin performing duties, the freelancer needs to send the employer about $20 for paperwork. In Russia, electronic scammers find 100-150 victims every month. And although users fall for such tricks less and less every year, the number of scammers does not decrease, since criminals feel unpunished.

According to Symantec Probe Network, 22% of spam comes from letters offering to purchase a product, often at a reduced price. Typically, scammers ask for an advance payment for a non-existent product that will never reach the buyer, or for credit card information. Another 20% of spam letters offer participation in various financial projects, including those related to investing in non-existent investment funds And financial pyramids. In the US and Western Europe, scammers are trying to sell private investors online shares of little-known but fast-growing companies, such as those in the biotech sector, that do not actually exist.

In 2001, 17-year-old American Cole Bartiromo lightened the pockets of his compatriots by more than $1 million: in two months, he convinced about a thousand investors to send him money to play in a win-win sports betting. The scammer offered investors a choice of several investment packages, the profits from participation in which ranged from 125% to 2500%. The first investors received the promised dividends - Bartiromo paid them with the money of new investors. The rest were much less fortunate, since the juvenile cyberthief transferred most of the collected funds to an account in one of the Costa Rican casinos. The American Securities and Exchange Commission found the young swindler guilty of organizing a financial pyramid.

Over the past two years, many pseudo-investment funds have appeared in Russia, offering investors to make money on fluctuations. exchange rates. Even 5 years ago Forex market was closed to individuals, but gradually the restrictions were lifted, and now even a small investor with $200 can play on the stock exchange. “Now there are more people from whom you can make money (fool)”, - says Sergei Gorbachevsky, head of the international dealing department of Integral Bank.

Fraudsters took advantage of the hype around Forex and began creating investment funds to play on the stock exchange, promising investors to increase their invested capital by 500-1000% per month. The investor only needs to transfer money to the company’s offshore account. Victims who agreed to questionable transactions, even more than buyers of mobile phones allegedly seized at customs. People are so impressed by the idea of ​​making quick money that they, without hesitation, sign agreements for managing funds with unknown investment companies. For some time, scammers may pay dividends to their clients. “But the main task of the fund is to collect money and disappear from the market. Some leave with $100 thousand, others with a million dollars,” says the banker.

After the disappearance of a fund, law enforcement agencies often make requests to the payment systems through which companies received payments from investors. Last year, more than 100 similar requests were received. According to Sergei Lebed, there have been cases of arresting criminals who laundered money through WebMoney, but no one has yet been jailed. The chances of finding a company registered offshore, which does not even have an office in Russia, are minimal.

Short

Home delivery
How to lose money when transferring money

Internet scammers receive money from potential victims not only through electronic payment systems, but also through monetary Western transfers Union, MoneyGram, Anelik. Fraudsters usually take advantage of the fact that consumers do not know the rules for receiving payments.

This is what a typical theft through transfers looks like. A potential victim receives a letter offering to buy a product at a very low price. The store manager offers to send the goods by mail or courier, and send money for the products, for example, through Western Union. To guarantee delivery, the scammer asks the victim to make an advance payment, and tells the secret ten-digit code, which supposedly will help the seller withdraw money from the bank, only after receiving the parcel.

Having transferred money, but still not receiving the goods, a person contacts Western Union, where he learns that in order to receive funds secret code You don’t need to know, you just need to show your passport. “The company constantly explains this rule to users, but there are cases of fraud,” says Mikhail Barbienko, head of the Western Union representative office in Ukraine, Georgia and Armenia.

Sometimes the victims of scammers are foreigners who are hungry for Russian brides. The girls meet them on the Internet, communicate, and when the time comes to meet, they ask the groom to send money for a ticket. Having received them, they disappear.

Russian swindlers also successfully play on the kindred feelings of people. An unknown person informs a potential victim that a problem has happened to one of his loved ones, for example, he allegedly had an accident and asks to urgently transfer money for an operation. Cases have been recorded in which fraudsters, posing as law enforcement officers, demanded a bribe so that a supposedly detained relative would avoid a criminal record.

The only way to avoid losing money during a transfer is to never send it to strangers. It should be remembered that a document confirming the transfer of funds only guarantees their receipt by the addressee, but nothing more.

Thief spam

Write letters
Examples of Nigerian spam

Approved a week and a half ago Russian budget for 2001. Now it's time to talk about how it will be stolen. "Power" offers short review the most common “relatively honest” ways of taking money from the state.
Let us immediately make a reservation that we will understand the term “budget” here in a non-scientific sense. Namely - like everyone else state property and property of local governments. To understand where state property flows, let’s consider three aspects of the budget: its replenishment, spending and conservation.

Replenishment
The vast majority of citizens underpay taxes to the state without even thinking about it. For example, if a citizen has privatized apartment, the state expects him to pay taxes on his real estate by April 1. On average, this tax (on average two-room apartment) is about 15 rubles per year. However, a citizen will most likely never even know about the existence of such a tax. After all, the basis for charging this amount from him is a certificate from the BTI, which tax office She must request it herself and pay 150 rubles for it herself. It is clear that the taxpayer can rest easy.
Entrepreneurs sleep much less peacefully as they develop a non-payment scheme for each of the numerous taxes. We will consider these schemes, immediately making the reservation that outright crime, such as the production of “unaccounted for” products and the purchase of a “state border meter” when no taxes are paid, will remain behind the scenes.

Import
About 90% of goods imported into the country are passed through documents that underestimate either the quantity of goods or their quality. For example, high-quality goods are imported into Russia under the guise of broken tiles, erasers (worth tens of millions of dollars), expensive wool is listed on paper as technical synthetics, etc. Six computers are passed off in documents as one, which (these are, supposedly, the conditions for the configuration and supplies) is packaged in parts into six boxes. Customs clearance is estimated at 50% of the cost of goods sold.
Before the introduction of excise stamps and other deposit barriers, customs handling of alcoholic beverages was generally extremely unpretentious. For example, a truck with vodka entered the country. After border control, she went to the customs clearance area. But on the way, the driver suddenly urgently needed a snack. Or according to need. He came out full and/or happy - there was no truck. The driver wrote a statement to the police, and meanwhile the truck was unloaded in a nearby nook. The police soon found her, but without the taxable cargo.
Now this scheme does not work: before bringing alcohol into the country, you need to purchase an excise stamp for each milliliter, deliver these stamps to the manufacturing plant, where they will be stuck on bottles sent to Russia, then deposit 100% of the duty on what is planned for import in the customs accounts amount of alcohol, and also indicate in advance the exact address of the customs terminal that will carry out customs clearance of the cargo.
When importing cars, a different scheme was in effect. Since citizens who had lived abroad for the last three years were allowed to import a car duty-free, entrepreneurs were actively “working with documents,” and the number of citizens who missed their homeland after a three-year absence became more and more numerous.
This loophole was recently closed, but for some reason imported cars in Russia have not risen in price at all. Importers of used cars began to enjoy another concession - a significantly reduced duty on cars three or more years old. And very mysterious things began to happen with new cars. For example, our importers buy new cars from warehouses in Finland at some prohibitively low prices (Saab 9-5 - for $17 thousand, Nissan Primera - for $9-12 thousand). From such “customs values” (the term of the State Customs Committee) duties are calculated and paid. So the work with documents continues.

Export
According to Russian laws, raw materials exported from the country are subject to duty, and finished products According to international standards, the state is obliged to return to the exporter in full value added tax, which was levied on goods at all stages of production in the country. Entrepreneurs deal with raw materials simply: “raw” sheet aluminum, for example, is easily converted into a finished product called a “collapsible aluminum hangar” by drilling four holes in each sheet along the edges. Instead of crude oil (which, by the way, contains water), you can export, say, a “product” with the duty-free name “water-oil mixture”. There is a well-known story when, at the dawn of perestroika, a huge batch of titanium shovels was taken out of the country. After crossing the border, the cuttings were disposed of, and commodity was delivered to the client in the best possible condition.
As for VAT, of course, the state never thought of returning it, so entrepreneurs developed a compensation mechanism. An exporting company merges into a holding with a partner who must pay VAT to the state for products for the domestic market. Intercompany netting frees the state from having to pay the exporter. But it also deprives the exporter of income from the partner. At the same time, however, about 10% of the total winnings goes to costs: you have to support those who organize all this.

Fictitious export
This method is a creative development of the titanium shovel theme and is becoming increasingly popular. In order to avoid paying VAT within the country, entrepreneurs begin to export some fantastic things. An ordinary cabinet, for example, is equipped with a switch. After which the product is declared as an exclusive household item that people are willing to buy abroad for a million dollars. Or a “documentary” about the exciting life of the Moscow metro is shot on an ordinary videotape, which is then allegedly sold to curious foreigners for several hundred thousand dollars.
The scale of fictitious exports is such that about six months ago, an interdepartmental center was created under the Ministry of Internal Affairs to combat the legalization of illegal income. However, the authorities are clearly aware of their powerlessness - there is no legal mechanism to suppress such activities. And therefore, the interdepartmental center is still collecting information in order to someday develop amendments to the legislation on its basis. According to some information, in order not to get into its database, you need to pay $50-100 thousand.

Income tax and VAT
Entrepreneurs, deprived of communication with customs, have their own tax evasion schemes. The most universal of them is based on an elementary idea: profits can be reduced to zero, and costs cannot be raised higher. On paper, of course.
Trading companies As a rule, transporting cargo, renting a warehouse, protecting goods and watering flowers on a rented window sill are “very expensive”.
You can go a little further. Most "advanced" gas station chains, for example, establish "independent" supply middlemen with zero assets (a table, two chairs, a telephone). These suppliers purchase gasoline, transport it, guard it, etc. After which, almost retail price"delivered" to gas stations. Even if their activities cause criticism tax authorities, there is nothing to take from intermediaries.
Manufacturing companies, firstly, can have the same wasteful suppliers, and secondly, regularly repair fixed assets. For example, paint facades, and only with the most expensive paint and only in winter, so that next year everything will have to be repainted again.
Traders and manufacturers also have other schemes - purely financial ones. The simplest of them is to take out a loan from a friendly bank and pay them crazy interest rates.
There is another option - to insure any of your “assets” against the most unthinkable cases. Insurance is obtained either by a friendly company or simply by a competent one Insurance Company, which is ready to “return” the money to any offshore for a very divine percentage. After the 1998 crisis, prices for these services remained at the level of 5-10%.

Payroll tax
The size of the tax exceeds all imaginable limits. Having paid an employee 100 rubles, the employer must pay about 70 rubles to the budget. Money, of course, is a pity, and therefore the so-called circulation scheme is used with the involvement of “your” bank. The bank lends to the enterprise, it “issues” interest-free loans to employees, they “carry” the money back to the bank, after which they receive interest for it (in the amount of their salary).
A couple of years ago, the state tried to close this loophole by imposing an income tax on any loans with interest rates below the Central Bank refinancing rate. However, the costs of this method still do not exceed 15% (and also taking into account the taxes that employees had to pay to the state for the income received in the form of interest from the bank).

Turnover taxes
The scheme for evading turnover taxes is similar to that used when evading export VAT. For example, road organizations, as a rule, struggle to receive the budgetary funds due to them, which are generated from taxes in the road fund. Therefore, it is not so difficult to agree on a mutual offset with road workers: having received the money (even in a smaller amount), they will confirm the “purity” of the donor to the tax department. In this way, you can save 10-40% of the amount of tax required to be transferred to the budget. Road funds receive 30-40% of what they are owed. They, however, are happy about this: the money is “real” and they received it without red tape.

Spending
The easiest way to steal is when the state wants to spend budget funds. Estimates for the construction and repair of roads and real estate are inflated and disappear targeted loans, from Pension Fund payments are made to long-deceased pensioners. End-user budget funds, according to some experts, receives no more than 10% of what the state wanted to give him.

Investment projects
A very popular method is to involve the state in investment projects. The most important thing here is to organize a competent PR campaign: the public must become aware of the importance of the project.
A textbook example international level- re-equipment of the entire computer park of the world under the pretext of the “2000 problem”. Bill Gates convinced the governments of dozens of countries to fork out. To be fair, we note that Russia turned out to be one of the few countries that was almost not affected by the “2000 problem” state level. However, we have quite a few grandiose projects of our own. The Cathedral of Christ the Savior, the monument to Peter, the renovation of the Kremlin, the Moscow-Petersburg highway, into which about $200 million has already been “buried” in four years. Examples can be continued.

Sale of state property
An auction of state property can be held in such a way that everyone is satisfied except the owner himself. There are literally no shortage of people with the money to participate in these auctions. Therefore, they can agree without difficulty. Entrepreneurs are deeply convinced that there are no fair auctions in principle. Even abroad. The difference is that “their” real value differs from what the experts of the “sales” commission will deduce by no more than two times, but with us it can be several orders of magnitude.

Preservation
Strange as it may seem, the most unpredictable metamorphoses occur with property that is simply in state ownership. This is the state treasury, consisting of money and real estate, and state stakes in shares various enterprises.

Loans
In the case of loans from the state Central Bank and Sberbank, the main thing is personal connections. Banks that have these connections manage to earn extremely profitable loans from Sberbank or the Central Bank. By then placing them at market rates, these banks receive the income that the state could well receive.
The most famous and large-scale embezzlement of the treasury took place during the heyday of state bonds in conjunction with the currency corridor. It was only necessary to have access to cheap foreign currency loans from Sberbank. For those who had this access, it was enough to take out a foreign currency loan at 10%, buy government bonds with it, and then receive an income of about 100% per annum on these bonds - albeit in rubles. The presence of a stable currency corridor completed this grandiose scheme: he took it from the state at 10%, and lent it back, but at 100%.
By the way, in Lately The government again started talking about the fact that there was too much free money in the country and it would be good to “bind it” with some kind of government securities. Perhaps a new State Defense Committee will be born - after all, in the departments valuable papers and the debt management of the Central Bank and the Ministry of Finance are the same people who were employed during the GKO period. They just have more experience.

Collateral lending
The most famous scheme is loans-for-shares auctions. An entrepreneur gives the state a obviously non-repayable loan, as security for which he receives a state block of shares in a large industrial enterprise. This scheme, despite the major scandals associated with it, remains legal to this day.

Broker surprise
Some government stakes are transferred to legal entities for management. The latter often use an ingenious scheme involving a broker. The shares are transferred to the broker for nominal holding, and with a mandatory condition (in professional language it is called “stop-loss”): if the price of the shares on the market reaches a certain lower limit, the broker is obliged to immediately sell the shares in order to protect the client from possible catastrophic losses. After concluding such a transaction, a lightning-fast collapse usually occurs, as a result of which the broker “honestly” sells the shares in an unknown direction.
By the way, this same scheme works flawlessly in various legal proceedings. As a rule, the court, before making a decision on the disputed shares, prohibits the defendant from any transactions with them. This is where an agreement between the defendant and the broker comes to light, according to which the broker, being in a “stop-loss” situation, sells the disputed shares. As a result, neither one nor the other law was violated, and the shares melted away.

Additional issue
The person representing the state in the joint-stock company is given a bribe by other shareholders. And this person point-blank “does not notice” the additional emission. The newly issued shares are bought up by briber-paying shareholders. And the share of the enterprise’s assets, which is now owned by the state, decreases tenfold.

Hazing
A regional industrial corporation is being organized for the purpose of more efficient activities for the benefit of something, which includes all enterprises in the region along with the administration. Established Joint-Stock Company, to which everyone contributes what they can. Administration - state blocks of shares held by the local property management committee. For this she gets, for example, a quarter or even a third of the newly formed local giant. The remaining shares are evenly distributed among industrial enterprises in the region. The next step: some community member (or group of friends) buys out shares from those members of the corporation who prefer “real” money to participation in a grandiose project. Having taken possession controlling stake, the player receives the legal right to dispose of the corporation’s assets, a significant part of which consists of state-owned shares of regional enterprises.

How the state steals
So that the state does not appear so unhappy in the published review, let us draw attention to the fact that it is also flawed in relation to its citizens. Let's give just one example. According to the Income Tax Law individuals, we must pay taxes once a year no later than April 1st. However, the Accounting Regulations and other instructions oblige our employers to withdraw and transfer this tax to the budget on a monthly basis - each time a salary is calculated. Thus, we lend to the state completely free of charge.
Let's take, for example, an average metropolitan manager with a salary of $500 a month and see how much he will lose on this in 2001. Every month he could contribute 13% of his salary (which is exactly the rate income tax will take effect next year) to Sberbank. Even if he put money into the most miserable deposit (8% per annum), he could save about $55 after paying taxes to the state in a year. And if he had moved a little and placed savings at rates close to market rates, he would have saved up to $400.
For 1999, according to the Ministry of Taxes, total amount collected income tax amounted to 117 billion rubles. (about $4 billion). If the state is as smart as the mentioned manager, it could easily earn more than 60 billion rubles from this. (about $2 billion). We can assume that citizens selflessly donated this amount to the state as compensation for everything stolen.
SVETLANA KHOLODKOVA

Homeland is not for sale The problem in Russia is not that we steal a lot, but that too much of what is stolen goes not to us, but to officials. Russian entrepreneurs break laws because they cannot survive otherwise. The idea is banal. The reason is known - bad laws, absolutely contradictory, and most importantly, constantly changing. It is known who makes the laws - gentlemen deputies, Reds and others. Next, analysts’ thoughts usually turn to voters who elect such deputies. And in vain. We need to switch to officials. They are the greedy crowd behind every law passed. Almost all significant laws and amendments to laws - on taxes, on property, on bankruptcy, on licenses and other levies on entrepreneurs - are lobbied by certain ministries and departments. After the adoption of bad laws, Russian entrepreneurs begin to bypass them, give bribes, kickbacks, buy licenses, permits, approvals, and participate in “competitions.” And in this kitchen the army of officials is fed well. Our civil servants have gained enormous experience in lobbying. They are no longer scoops, but merciless sharks of capitalism. They constantly plunder their homeland and diligently come up with new ways to snatch something else from their fellow citizens. PR agencies are involved, mountains of customized articles are published, public figures are bribed to support anti-people projects. The latest bright idea of ​​officials is the Minatom project to import spent nuclear fuel into Russia for reprocessing. The idea is monstrous, like all nuclear energy. While this is prohibited by law, Minister Yevgeny Adamov has been processing deputies and public opinion for a year now. I personally am following this epic with trepidation, because Mr. Adamov can succeed. Following the traditions of Kommersant, I tried to find at least something positive in the actions of our officials. And you won’t believe it - I found it. The idea is this: over the past ten years, officials have saved their homeland from being sold off and becoming a raw material appendage of the West. Thanks to our contradictory laws and lawless officials, such a situation has become established in our country. investment climate that no foreigners could buy practically anything here. As a result, oil, gas, metals and other valuables went to ordinary Russian people - you are already sick of their names. If one of these Russians mistakenly sells their big business foreigners, then officials will quickly take the business back (this happened, for example, with the Philips plant in Voronezh). Our homeland is not for sale: thanks to the officials. GLEB PYANYKH, editor of the investigation department

Everything Sberbank clients need to know so as not to lose money

One of the main tasks of any bank is, no matter how trivial it may sound, to protect the funds of its clients. However, not all credit institutions cope with it. Clients of even such monolithic banks as Sberbank constantly complain that funds were illegally written off from their cards, and the bank is in no hurry to return them. Unfortunately, in most cases, drowning people can only save themselves on their own. If you know how scammers operate, you can save your hard-earned savings.

Method number 1: getting rich on pensioners

Fraudsters believe that one of the simplest ways to get rich is to deceive a pensioner or a child, since these groups of the population are often the least informed and are easier to force to give out the necessary data. Here is a review we found on the website BANKIREVIEW.RU: “Dear Sberbank! Please help us understand the situation - our friend, a war veteran, a siege survivor - So-a M.P. became a victim of scammers with the obvious connivance (I would not like to think that with the assistance) of your bank employees. The plot is this: some time ago she received a call, allegedly from the social security service, and was told that she was entitled to compensation for previously purchased medications, and this compensation would be transferred to her Sberbank card; they asked her to give the card number, which she did. Then the next day they called her, allegedly from Sberbank, and said that in order to transfer money, she needed to connect to the Internet banking service and link it to the phone number that was dictated to her, which she did at the bank branch.”

After some time, the pensioner was invited to a Sberbank branch to investigate the movement of funds in the account. It turned out that all the funds from the savings book were transferred to her card, and then the money was lost in the accounts of several third-party cards. Considering that the transfer was made for large amounts (200 and 300 thousand rubles), during the transfer of which the bank must call the client to confirm the transaction, as well as the fact that the bank refused to provide an account statement at the client’s request, it is possible that that the bank tried to hide the fact of employees’ negligence, at a minimum. However, there is little hope that the pensioner will get her accumulated funds back, since she herself provided the scammers with her information. Credit institutions often regard this as a voluntary decision to give away their funds.

“I would like to note that in the year of celebrating the 70th anniversary of the Victory, this situation looks especially blasphemous and absurd in relation to a person who truly deserves special attention and the concerns of our State and its institutions (50% of the shares of Sberbank of Russia and plus one more voting share belong to Central Bank RF, which means that this amount is directly under the power of the state),” the author of the review laments.

Advice: Never give your card details to anyone. And connecting your cell phone number to the Internet bank serves precisely to protect your funds. Therefore, a request to connect any third-party number to your Internet bank is a clear sign of fraud.

Method number 2: SMS from number 900

SMS scams are very common, but they are becoming more sophisticated. Fraudsters have learned to fake real Sberbank messages that clients usually receive through mobile banking. Here’s what one of the clients writes: “Today I received a strange SMS from number 900! Everything is as it should be, transaction code, sender’s middle name, first 4 and last 4 digits of the card, 1 ruble credited. Then another SMS arrives, within an hour, with the same credit for 1 ruble. and a text like “RUR 100,000 has been credited to your account by mistake, urgently call 8903-.” And then credit for 1 ruble. with the text: “otherwise I’ll contact the police.”

Advice: There is no doubt that such SMS came from scammers. In any case, the client will learn about the crediting of any funds to the account using the mobile banking function or from the operator of the credit institution. Most likely, after the call, money will be debited from the client’s mobile account, probably a lot of money, or the scammers may use blackmail to extort bank card details. Therefore, Sberbank clients You should not respond to such messages- call the indicated telephone numbers or respond via SMS - and immediately inform the bank about such fraudulent actions in order to take countermeasures.

Method number 3: sophisticated skimming

Skimmers are reading devices that fraudsters install on ATMs to then create a duplicate card and withdraw money from it. In addition to a duplicate magnetic stripe, scammers seek to obtain a PIN code, most often using a microscopic camera. However, even without a PIN code, card data can be used to withdraw funds from it.

Unfortunately, a large network of Sberbank ATMs have reverse side— the number of people who want to encroach on clients’ money largest bank, is also growing. It would seem that the chip on the card should protect against skimmers, because it is more difficult to copy. All cards in Russia are equipped with chips, but not all ATMs read them. In most Sberbank ATMs, you can withdraw money from a duplicate card without a chip. Even if you can’t withdraw money, using a duplicate card, fraudsters can connect your phone number to mobile banking, gain access to online banking and one-time passwords to confirm transactions.

This is what a Sberbank client writes on BANKIREVIEW.RU: “I was at work when I received a message about blocking my Visa cards. I immediately called Sberbank and they told me that the card was blocked due to possible fraudulent activities. Of course, I went to the bank, wrote an application for reissue and calmed down. I found out about the disappearance of funds 2 days later, when I discovered that a significant amount of 149,000 rubles had appeared on the Momentum card, which I managed to withdraw, the scammers closed the deposit on the savings book, and Sberbank withdrew its commission of 9434.62 for early termination“Manage” deposit agreement, and transferred 413,286.44 to Momentum card, the scammers withdrew 3,000 rubles 5 times, then 100,000 rubles, 150,000 rubles - a total of 265,000 rubles were withdrawn...”

Fortunately, in such cases, Sberbank still returns the money to the owner. However, this process can last from several months to six months, so it is better to protect yourself in advance.

Advice: It is better to choose ATMs at a bank branch, and not in a dark corner of a store or on the street. Just in case, inspect the ATM - if there are traces of glue on it or something is loose, it is better not to use it (and to prevent other crimes, report your doubts to the bank). When entering your PIN, cover the keyboard with your hand. At the first suspicion that the card has been compromised, call the bank and block the card.

Method number 4: chain letters

A classic example of phishing is when you receive an email from a bank, click on a link and end up on a completely different website that is very similar to the bank’s website. The login and password are immediately transferred to the attackers, and the money flows into their pockets. Substitution of the Internet banking login page can occur if your computer or smartphone is infected with viruses.

A large number of clients who did not choose the bank themselves are pensioners, salary clients are often not technically savvy enough, which means they are more easily confused to get the information they need. But there is another reason.

Knowing the card number and the phone number to which it is linked, you can register with Sberbank Online again - the fraudster can only receive the codes from SMS. You can create a payment template and withdraw money using it without SMS confirmation. It is especially dangerous that through Sberbank online scammers gain access to all accounts, not just card ones.

Advice: To avoid meeting scammers through online banking, be extremely vigilant. By going to the Sberbank website, check secure connection, it can be found in the address bar: https://. Also, if, when logging into online banking, you are required to enter something other than a login and password/one-time password, this is not the Sberbank website.

Method number 5: mobile hole

At Sberbank, mobile banking is considered one of the best lines of protecting client funds - this is SMS notification of all transactions plus the ability to send short commands to special numbers for making payments (for telephone, transfer from card to card, etc.). Also, connecting to a mobile bank is a prerequisite for accessing the Internet bank. At the same time, the card is protected using a universal agreement banking services, which links all your accounts and links them to a number mobile phone.

This is where, as a rule, the main problem lies. Anyone who gains access to your phone number or, for example, links their number to your mobile banking, can withdraw funds from your account with impunity and secretly. In this case, an SMS with a password, and in some cases even an SMS about withdrawing funds, may not reach the rightful account owner. There are often cases when bank clients changed their phone number without delinking their mobile bank from it; subsequently this number was given to another person, and he was able to freely steal money from the account. But the main danger of a mobile bank is that large sums can be withdrawn from an account through it, without even needing to know the card number.

Advice: Unfortunately, after the theft of funds through mobile banking, Sberbank extremely rarely returns funds, as it considers confirmation of the code via SMS as your consent. Therefore, it is necessary to monitor your funds yourself, at the first suspicion of withdrawal, block the card and sort out with the bank what the problem may be. If numbers you are unfamiliar with are linked to your mobile bank, you must write a request to disable them. It happens that employees do not turn off the mobile bank after receiving the application, and your funds continue to flow into the pockets of criminals. In this case, you can return the funds if you prove to the bank that the application was written, but the service was not disabled.

According to experts, Russians today have about 200 million bank cards. And this is not surprising - more and more organizations are transferring salary payments to cards, terminals for cashless payments are appearing even in small kiosks. Criminals are closely monitoring all this. The volume of money thefts from the accounts of plastic card holders has today reached an unprecedented scale. Therefore, “Our Version” has compiled instructions on how not to lose your money.

According to approximate data from international organizations, the damage from theft of money from bank cards around the world is estimated at 13–15 billion dollars a year. About $4 billion of this comes from Russia. Today, both the accounts of ordinary customers and the accounts of legal entities in banks, and payment systems retail networks.

50 million went to scammers

Once, the police in the city of Ivanovo almost simultaneously received more than 200 statements about illegal write-off from accounts large sums money. In most cases, the victims were clients of one of the large banks connected to the system " Mobile bank"and having gadgets on the Android OS platform. As it turned out, an SMS was sent to the mobile device offering to download a holiday card or a popular melody. When downloaded, a program was simultaneously downloaded onto the gadget, which hacked a bank account and transferred money. Totally agree Last year number of Trojan malware detected in mobile devices Russian citizens increased nine (!) times. IN Russian banks in 2014, Trojan programs were detected 12 thousand times. Today, within the Ministry of Internal Affairs system there is Directorate “K”, which has its specialists in all regions. Its employees regularly find and catch cyber fraudsters. Thus, recently specialists from departments “K” of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the Sverdlovsk and Chelyabinsk regions stopped the activities of a criminal group that was stealing funds from the accounts of clients of Russian banks. It all started when the police received information about the appearance of a new type of malicious software in the country - Trojan-Banker.AndroidOS.svpeng.a, which targets devices that also run on the Android platform. The leader of the criminal group that spread the virus turned out to be a 25-year-old resident Chelyabinsk region with only nine years of education. The program used by the scammers, after being installed on the device, requested the balance of the bank card linked to the bank card number, hid incoming notifications, and began transferring funds from the bank account to accounts controlled by the attackers. In total, they stole over 50 million rubles in this way.

ON A NOTE

What to do if you were robbed?

1. Immediately notify the security service of the bank that serves you and write a statement.

2. Fill out and send a statement about the incident to the Ministry of Internal Affairs website https://mvd.ru. An application submitted in this way will be registered and must be answered. Get a registration number and track the actions of specialists. If all victims report the fact of theft to the police, this will greatly facilitate the work of catching the criminals.

Mobile banking can make your money too mobile

It should be recognized that in this case, as in many others, the victims of the scam themselves gave access to their accounts, following the lead of the scammers. There are many similar methods of deception using a mobile phone in the arsenal of criminals. One of the most popular is sending a wide range of SMS to random people, as if on behalf of the bank, with a warning about the account being reset and a request to call the specified phone number. Then, during a telephone conversation, the scammers say that perhaps an error occurred and the money did not leave the account. And in order to check this, the victim needs to go to any ATM, call its number, insert the card into the receiver and enter the PIN code. After this, the attackers gain access to the client’s account and transfer money to accounts under their control. No less dangerous is the “Mobile Bank” service, which many banks today actively offer to their clients. The main thing to remember: if you lose your phone or change your SIM card, be sure to disable the Mobile Banking service. After all, after the number has not been used for three months, the telecom operator can re-sell it. And if the new owner of your old mobile number(or phone) it comes to mind based on incoming notifications to withdraw your money, it will not be difficult to do this.

On this topic

Fake ATM

Criminals often use ATMs as a weapon. One of the most common methods is to place a fake keypad with a memory block on the ATM keypad, which allows you to find out the PIN code. Or, criminals install a video camera on the ATM that records the PIN code being entered, and sometimes they even openly mount it on the wall, pretending that the device was installed by the bank. In this case, the camera is mounted in tandem with a device through which the card passes when it is inserted into the terminal. This device reads the magnetic stripe data of the card and transmits information over a short distance. If you see suspicious people or a car near the terminal, it is possible that the signal receiver is located there. Together, these devices allow you to duplicate a bank card and withdraw money. You also need to keep in mind that often in bank branches the doors of the premises where the ATM is located are opened using a card, and this gives criminals the opportunity to install their own devices at the location where the unit for reading magnetic stripe data is installed to open the door. So be careful. However, there is more simple ways. For example, if an ATM is installed in a poorly lit place, scammers can simply cover the slot for dispensing money with transparent film. As a result, the cardholder believes that the ATM did not work and leaves, while the fraudsters remove the money remaining in the ATM. But still, the most original method recorded to date, perhaps, is the installation of fake ATMs of non-existent banks, which, when cards are entered, read their data and transfer them to crooks, naturally, without issuing money.

MEANWHILE

In 2015, Kaspersky Lab announced a major cyber fraud involving hackers from Russia, China and Europe. $300 million (identified amount) was stolen from client accounts of more than 100 banks in 30 countries. Using fictitious accounts, hackers took over

millions of dollars from clients of banks in Russia, Japan, Switzerland, the USA, the Netherlands, etc. Attackers from the Carbanak group (as they called themselves) managed to introduce a malicious program of the same name into the computers of bank employees who processed data on daily transfers and entered Accounting. Thanks to the program, hackers could track all the actions of bank employees, right down to the keystrokes. Money was withdrawn through

ATMs or transferred to dummy accounts. It is worth noting that not a single bank out of 100 admitted to cases of theft of money from accounts, fearing an outflow of clients (it is assumed that the real amount stolen was close to $1 billion).

When filling out documents for your bank, indicate only the last four digits of the account.

If you inserted a card into the card reader and the ATM refuses to give it to you, you must immediately block your “plastic” through the bank or by phone.

When paying with a card somewhere in a cafe, always look at the contents of the receipt. If you find an error, be sure to tear up the first check and ask to delete the old invoice and provide a new one, otherwise the payment amount may be debited from your bank account twice.

Use only a chip card. She is more protected. Counterfeiting a chip card is more difficult and more expensive than counterfeiting a non-chip card.

If you receive an SMS message stating that your card is blocked and you are asked to call an unknown phone number, you should not call it. It is better to contact the nearest bank office for clarification.

Withdraw money from trusted ATMs that are under video surveillance.