VTB experts have been recording a continuous increase in fraudster activity

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Over the past year, the share of fraudulent calls in instant messengers has increased fivefold and reached 55% by the beginning of February, for the first time overtaking the number of telephone attacks and . In 2023 , instant messengers will become the main channel of fraudsters' activity, so by the end of the year the share of calls through them may grow to 80%. This was stated yesterday, February 15, during a press briefing by Deputy President and Chairman of venezuela mobile number database the Management Board of VTB Anatoly Pechatnikov.
in messengers over the past year. At the beginning of 2022 , the share of such calls was less than 10% of the total number of telephone attacks, in December it reached 47%, and in early February it exceeded 55%. According to the bank's estimates, by the end of this year, 8 out of 10 calls from attackers will be made via messengers.

In January, the total number of telephone attacks on VTB retail clients decreased by 20% compared to the previous month - to 450 thousand , but in February they began to grow again, by about 20% daily. The bulk of false requests are made via messengers. The activity of telephone scammers is restrained by the law, which ensured the blocking of gray SIM cards and toughened the liability of mobile operators for cases of number substitution.

" The joint efforts of the state, banks and mobile operators have made it possible to combat telephone fraud more effectively, which has had a mirror effect on the number of attacks on clients. However, attackers are actively looking for new channels and migrating to popular instant messengers, taking advantage of the availability of account registration, low cost of calls via the Internet and the ability to download a logo or name of a well-known company to a profile. VTB's strategic goal is to ensure maximum financial security for clients. Therefore, in the near future we will implement new measures to protect users and in the first half of the year we will begin testing a caller ID for incoming calls in instant messengers , " noted Anatoly Pechatnikov.

Sergey Khrenov, Director of Fraud and Income Loss Prevention at PJSC MegaFon, said that over the past year the company has also received numerous complaints about unwanted calls in messengers . "Therefore , together with law enforcement agencies, we are working to combat fake accounts ," he added .