False Communal call Orenburg residents on behalf of the water utility: how not to get caught
Rosvodokanal Orenburg warns citizens, recently there have been more frequent cases of phone calls from unknown people who pose as employees of the water utility and try to deceive people
Pseudo-communalists usually report the need to check meters or examine water and sewer utilities. To gain trust, they turn to the victim by name and patronymic and can give the exact address of residence. Then they specify the convenient time for the master’s visit and the date for creating the “application” – and insistently ask to report the code that came to the phone in SMS, allegedly for confirmation. In fact, this code is used to restore access to an account on Public Services or to confirm a money transfer from the victim’s account.
“Water employees do not send SMS to subscribers to confirm operations. We urge citizens not to succumb to the provocations of fraudsters. If you receive a call from an alleged employee of a water utility with a request to provide personal data or codes from SMS - do not believe this, warns Alexei Markov, commercial director of Rosvodokanal Orenburg.
What do you recommend for protection? Never share personal data, passwords or codes from SMS, no matter who the caller is. Do not follow links in suspicious messages and do not answer calls from messengers from unfamiliar numbers. If you are faced with such a call - immediately stop the conversation and report the incident to law enforcement agencies.
What is important to remember about official channels? An application for verification or replacement of the metering device can be made on the official website of the company - this is the only reliable way if you really need a master.
The scheme with pseudocommunalists is dangerous precisely because fraudsters put pressure on the usual: a person hears a familiar name, hears his name and address and relaxes. And then – one code from SMS, and access to the “public services” or bank account is the attacker. Here it is worth remembering a simple thing: no resource supplying organization requests codes from SMS to confirm applications. If a caller asks for a code, he is a fraud, whoever he is. And a separate point: even knowing your name and address does not prove anything - such data has long been leaked, and their presence at the caller should not lull vigilance.
Have you ever received such calls? How did you know they were scams?
