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A new type of fraud in Kazakhstan has become popular among swindlers. Now they call the intended victims, telling them that their relatives or acquaintances got into an accident and money is urgently needed to resolve the situation. Zakon.kz spoke with the victims of swindlers.

Your grandson was involved in an accident

The victim of the new fraud scheme was 68-year-old Nadezhda Zavidova. According to the pensioner, unknown people called her and told her about an accident, the culprit of which was allegedly her grandson. At the other end of the wire, the alleged victims tearfully asked for compensation, saying that the car was badly damaged. Believing the swindlers, the woman gave them 100 thousand tenge.

“A young girl called me, all in tears, said that her grandson crashed into her car. Apparently there was an accomplice nearby who introduced himself as her husband. He started putting pressure on me and said that they would write a statement to the police. they said that he fled the scene of the accident. I immediately called my grandson, he did not answer me. I thought that he was suddenly afraid and really ran away. Well, they said so confidently that I could not even think that they were scammers. Usually they ask for a card number “We agreed to meet with them so that they would sign a receipt that they were not against my grandson. About an hour later, someone came to my house. He introduced himself as Alexei, allegedly injured, took my money and signed a receipt,” she said. Nadezhda Zavidova.

A few hours later, the grandson of the pensioner got in touch, then she realized that she was the victim of another divorce.

“The grandson then called back, it turns out his phone was dead. Then I realized that it was a divorce, but it was too late. I immediately called back to that number, but they were already out of the zone. The grandson insisted that I write a statement to police. I don’t even know how it happened,” Nadezhda Zavidova explained.

Your wife was in an accident, she is in the hospital and urgently needs money

According to businessman Kairat Yengizbaev, swindlers called him late at night, saying that his wife had been in an accident and she urgently needed a transfusion, which costs money.

“I already know about such tricks of scammers. When they called me with bad news, I knew that Saltanat was at a party with friends. But, thanking for the message, I immediately called my wife back and found out that everything was fine with her” – said Kairat Yengizbaev.

Father needs money for treatment

The next victim of the scammers almost turned out to be a student Aiganym Sabyrgani. According to the girl, that day she passed the exams. I received a call from an unknown number, they said that Aiganym’s father became ill at work. The scammers introduced themselves as employees of the city hospital and asked for a large sum of money for treatment – 500,000 tenge. According to the student, they talked for about 20 minutes, only at the end of the conversation she suspected something was wrong.

“They started saying that dad had fainted and allegedly had a heart attack. I was shocked and thought that suddenly this really happened. They said that the hospital did not have the necessary drugs and that dad had to be transferred to a paid department in order to save her. Only then I began to remember that my dad has no heart problems and is now on vacation at home. I immediately hung up and called my father. He said that everything was fine with him and I calmed down,” Aiganym Sabyrgani said.

According to the girl, the scammers called her for a long time, trying to lure money out under various pretexts.

Never say “yes” into the phone

There is another new scam. Scammers simply dial the number of the victim, talk to her about nothing, and then hang up the call. Then they pass the recorded voice through the neural networks, create the new phrases and sentences they need. Then everything is according to the scenario, the scammers either use ready-made material to take out a loan from a bank, or call the relatives of the victims and ask for help. Experts do not advise citizens to say a firm “Yes” when talking to scammers.

According to IT specialist Alexander Grintsov, there are paid and free neural networks. If the paid ones fake the voice with high quality, then the free ones work quite badly.

“There are many types of neural networks that allow you to fake a voice from a 10 second passage. Free ones work poorly and the syntas of speech is easy to distinguish from a real person. Paid ones are of course much better, but they still do not transmit the voice ideally. There will still be various background noises not entirely natural, or they may incorrectly emphasize some words, or they do not convey the intonation as they should. It all depends on how well the neural network is trained, “says Alexander Grintsov

The IT specialist clarified that a well-trained neural network can only be distinguished if the conversation is recorded and listened to for a very long time.

How to protect yourself from scammers?

In order not to fall for the trick of swindlers, the head of the NGO “National League of Consumers” Svetlana Romanovskaya advises not to answer calls from unknown numbers. According to the expert, if you still answered the call and a conversation begins that you need to transfer money, then it is better to immediately end the conversation and block the number.

“If something really happened to your relatives, the state authorities should inform you about it. When they call and say that the child or relative of the victim needs an operation or something else, this is an old scheme. Parents start to worry at this time and the scammer starts say that the money is urgently needed, they say they are already eating in an ambulance, they need an operation, etc. There is a video call, ask them to call you on video and show the situation, “says Svetlana Romanovskaya.

According to the expert, there are also a lot of fraudulent schemes associated with cosmetic services, with the construction of houses and government mortgages. Scammers lure their victims with easy money and winnings. It is quite difficult to recognize scammers, but it is possible, the expert says.

“They can offer cosmetic services for free. Fraudsters say, come to such and such an address, we will do plastic surgery for free, the main thing is to come with a certificate, and there they will issue a loan for you on the spot. Therefore, if you receive strange calls, always record the conversation. Dictaphone recording will be evidence. Then it will be possible to contact the police and, after a criminal case has been opened, already demand compensation for material damage,” Svetlana Romanovskaya explained.

In Kazakhstan, the number of complaints about phone scammers is growing. In April 2023, the research company Aquarelle Research conducted a survey to find out how often Kazakhstanis encounter phone scammers. The study involved 1000 residents from different regions of the country aged 18 to 55 years. The results were quite disappointing. 77% of those surveyed said that they really faced calls from telephone scammers. At the same time, 18% of respondents noted that the frequency of such calls has increased.