National Bank of Kazakhstan warns about fraudulent schemes using fake or hacked personal accounts of users in instant messengers.

Fraudsters in instant messengers use fake accounts of employees of the National Bank of Kazakhstan or other government and law enforcement agencies, while for authenticity of the profile, they use images and emblems from publicly available sources, including those posted on official resources of these agencies.

Fraudsters also, posing themselves as employees of the technical support service of instant messengers, send citizens messages about submitting an application to delete an account. To cancel the decision, citizens are asked to go to the website, where they must indicate their phone number and enter a one-time code received in the message. Thus, the attackers gain an access to the account and block the user.

Then, using fake or stolen accounts, attackers write to relatives and friends, and under various pretexts ask to transfer money, follow a link, download an application, activate new functions in the messenger, or provide personal data.

Moreover, attackers send messages or publish QR-codes in public places with offers of a promising work with a high salary. In this case, if the user follows the specified links, they gain an access to the messenger, mobile device or personal data.

The National Bank urges the citizens to be more vigilant and not to disclose confidential information to third parties, not to trust suspicious messages in the messenger and phone calls, to double-check authenticity of requests and not to make money transfers, not to open questionable links and files, and not to install remote access applications HopToDesk, RustDesk, RUDesktop, AnyDesk, TeamViewer and others.

To avoid fraudulent actions by third parties, the National Bank of Kazakhstan recommends that when receiving calls from alleged employees of government agencies or the National Bank, you end the conversation and, if necessary, call the official number of the government agency yourself.

If you run into fraudulent actions, we strongly recommend that you file a relevant statement with the law enforcement agencies of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

To receive advice, please contact the Contact Center of the National Bank at number 1477.

Detailed information for the media representatives is available upon request:
8 (7172) 77–52–10
e-mail: press@nationalbank.kz
www.nationalbank.kz