By 
A recent Kaspersky survey¹ showed that 51% of people in the Middle East, Turkey and Africa (META) region dealt with fraudsters who were trying to steal money, bank card details, Internet banking credentials in 2020. A quarter of respondents encountered scammers themselves, 20% said it was their loved ones who had interacted with criminals and the other 6% marked both categories.
According to the survey, the fraudsters’ criminal attempts increased in 2020. More than half of the respondents in the META region (54%) consider that scammers had targeted them or their loved ones more frequently during the Coronavirus pandemic and self-isolation. Scammers exploited different ways and statements in their manipulations in order to reach victims. Among them were special offers such as personal protection items for sale (14%) and goods that allegedly diagnose and treat Coronavirus: non-existent medicines, tests and others (13%). Some criminals offered to issue a special city pass during lockdown (9%) or requested payment of fines allegedly for non-compliance with rules related to the fight against Coronavirus (14%).
“Scammers often adapt their manipulations to the current agenda. During the pandemic some scammers tried to exploit people’s anxiety to make money in the increased demand for certain goods while others focused on citizens’ desire of freedom. No matter what kind of tricks the scammers use, users should follow the basic rules of cybersecurity”, commented Maher Yamout, Senior Security Researcher at Kaspersky.
The most popular way of protection against online scams among the respondents in the META region was to ignore messages or emails from strangers and invitations to follow suspicious links (79%). Also 38% use special protection solutions (antivirus).
Kaspersky reminds all the users about basic rules of online security:
- Do not click on suspicious links in emails and messages in chats
- If you have found out about a particular promotion and want to participate, check the official website or official social media accounts to reassure that this company or brand is holding it
- Install a reliable security solution with up-to-date databases of phishing sites, scam and spam, such as Kaspersky Total Security
- Use different email addresses to register on various services
- Never share confidential information with third parties, including a one-time code from an SMS or push notification
- Remember if an offer on the Internet sounds too tempting to be true, then most likely it is fake
Reference:
¹ The survey was conducted in conjunction with Toluna research agency in September 2020.
