Children on the hook: will the authorities be able to protect them from fraudsters?

Threats and blackmail

One of the high school students from a Moscow school sent 200 million rubles to scammers in February. The 17-year-old boy received a call from unknown people who introduced themselves as employees of the delivery service. They asked him to dictate the “code from the SMS” “so that the order would not be sent for disposal, but returned to the pick-up point.” The schoolboy did so. After which he received another call, this time allegedly from Roskomnadzor. The boy was convinced that his profile on Gosuslugi had been hacked, the scammers had already issued powers of attorney for bank accounts and seized his family’s money. At the same time, the entire amount fell into the hands of a person who could send it to terrorists. The frightened teenager no longer knew what to do, and then after a while a “special services employee” contacted him. He said that the schoolboy’s apartment needed to be searched. But it would be better if the eleventh-grader himself carried out the “search” and simply handed over the remaining money to the courier “for safety.” The boy did just that. The parents' money was in several apartments in safes, but this did not stop the young man. He used a grinder to open one of them, took out $400,000 and 80 million rubles, packed the money in a bag and handed it over to the courier. He invited specialists in complex locks to open another safe. They helped him take out another 50 million rubles, which were also handed over to the courier. The missing money was discovered by the housekeeper. She contacted the teenager's mother. She spoke with her son and, realizing what had happened, went with him to the police.

Descriptions of such cases have been appearing in the press and telegram channels with enviable regularity for several years now. And the fact that children who simply exchanged messages with someone are being blackmailed with “help for the Armed Forces of Ukraine” is no longer surprising. What is frightening is something else: the scammers know a lot about children.

So, a tenth-grader from Tambov was called by criminals posing as an "advisor to the director for educational work." She introduced herself, gave the correct name and initials of a teacher who actually worked at the school in this position. The fake school employee asked whether the girl used "Dnevnik.ru." The mother of the high school student said that she regularly discussed with her daughter the tricks that scammers use, explained why she should not talk to them, but the fact that the pseudo-educator introduced herself to the schoolgirl with her real name did not raise any doubts in the girl. Then came a call allegedly from the MFC. The girl was told that her account was logged in from another region. This means that the scammers gained access to the page on Gosuslugi, to which her parents' data is linked. And now everyone will be checked to see if there was "sending money to the Armed Forces of Ukraine from their accounts." The girl was warned about the call from the "investigator." And he really did call. He promised to help, but for some reason his help turned into threats. "Your parents may be imprisoned because of your stupidity, and you are the only one to blame!" the false investigator said in a correspondence with the child. "I am trying to help you now, but you do not notify me about lessons, you close the calls, and in general, as I understand it, you are not very interested in solving this problem. With such an attitude, I will simply refuse you, let the FSB handle the case, let them take the parents into custody, and send you to an orphanage until you come of age!!! Either you open the calls and notify me of every step, since I am responsible for you with my head, or deal with the FSB. The choice is yours." (Spelling and punctuation of the criminals preserved.)

Here the girl doubted that she was talking to a real employee, so she asked for an ID. And he sent it! As it turned out later, it was a photo of one of the participants in an entertainment program about psychics on one of the TV channels. The girl was told that the conversation was strictly confidential, that if the adults found out about the call, they would become accomplices. To prove that the schoolgirl was not "helping the enemy army", she was asked to take a photo of all the money in the house. If the mother, interested in the saddened look of the child, had not intervened in what was happening, then they would have asked to take photos of bank cards and access to accounts.

Forewarned means protected?

In order to protect children from such actions of criminals, the authorities want to expand the legal norms. "We propose to enshrine in the federal law the direction of prevention related to violations using the capabilities of the Internet - cybercrimes, so that in schools and everywhere that the prevention system covers, we can tell children about the dangers, about the challenges and how to respond, and about responsibility, among other things," emphasized Deputy Metelev. The parliamentarian added that the wording of the provisions is currently being refined together with the Prosecutor General's Office. The adoption of new norms will probably be carried out already in this session of the State Duma. According to the deputy, today 40% of all crimes are committed using the Internet. This is not only luring money from parents through children, but also recruitment and droppering (providing criminals with your personal data so that they use it to withdraw stolen funds. - "MK" ).

The MP believes that minors do not know their rights and do not understand the full extent of their responsibility. Many teenagers are lured into criminal activity through online games and other forms of communication on the Internet. Everyone should be warned about this, Metelev believes. And the teenagers themselves should not have legal nihilism when they claim during interrogations after committing crimes that they did not know that they were doing something illegal, the MP is sure.

Will the proposed measures help in the fight against fraudsters and what is the scale of the problem of teenagers being drawn into the orbit of criminals in Russia today, MK was told by a former FSB officer and now the director of investigations for the digital asset security platform "SHARD" Grigory Osipov.

— How many children have been involved in fraudulent activities recently?

— Modern children and teenagers are the generations of millennials and zoomers, who have been involved in the digital reality since birth. They also make up the majority of Internet users, and therefore they themselves can be both criminals and victims of cyber fraudsters. Their involvement is confirmed by statistics on the time spent by teenagers on the Internet — from 4-6 hours of daily “sitting” on the phone or computer.

According to the official report of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for last year, the number of crimes using the Internet reached 40% of all crimes. Also, according to the same statistics, in 2024, 21 thousand minors broke the law. Data from the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation indicate that in 2024, a total of 9.5 thousand teenagers aged 14-17 were brought to criminal responsibility for committing crimes. At the same time, more than half of all crimes committed by minors are acquisitive crimes, that is, thefts and fraud, most of which are committed on the Internet.

— What can be said about the process of involving teenagers in criminal schemes?

— In addition to their direct commission of crimes, in 2024 the tendency of involving children in criminal activity, mainly in fraudulent schemes and hacker attacks, increased by almost 35%. Children were previously involved in illegal activity on the Internet, including in the drug trade market, cashing out money, performing one-time assignments, courier and intermediary functions.

It should be noted that within the framework of the information war with Ukraine, involving children in hacker attacks and break-ins under various pretexts has become a separate direction for the enemy, since teenagers are often more naive and susceptible to influence and manipulation. Within the framework of this direction, children are involved in acts of intimidation, arson, explosions.

The problem of drops, for which criminal liability is now provided, can also be attributed to the way teenagers earn money on the Internet, who from the age of 14 can sell their passport data for use in illegal activities.

— But often children themselves become victims in such schemes. Are they deceived by the same schemes as adults?

— Indeed, there are frequent cases when teenagers were approached via video calls by fraudsters posing as law enforcement officers, under whose influence the minors provided information about their parents’ bank cards, valuables stored in the house, as part of a so-called “virtual search”, and even transferred or handed over large sums of money to the robbers several times.

In addition, children are susceptible to cyberattacks, including phishing, blackmail, and extortion online — in most cases through computer games and social networks. Here, attackers offer to buy additional points to “improve the speed of the game,” offer to profitably sell virtual items or a “pumped up game account.”

In addition to telephone schemes, there are cases of Android device infection - an increase in fraudulent programs under the guise of children's computer games. This is confirmed by the growth of phishing and Trojan threats aimed at children. These data show a systematic problem: children are becoming both objects and tools of Internet fraudsters.

Special approach and attention

— Should the protection of children from fraudsters be included in a separate bill?

— Children are a unique and extremely vulnerable group of Internet users who need specific mechanisms of legal and informational protection that are different from those provided for the adult population.

Firstly, the level of digital literacy among children is significantly lower than among adults. According to the report, more than 46% of posts on the RuNet in 2023 contained phishing links. And most Russian children (79%) receive friend requests from strangers on social networks.

Secondly, the psychological characteristics of the child audience require a separate approach. Children are more susceptible to manipulation. Fraudsters actively use social engineering schemes, appealing to fear, trust in adults, gaming interests or the desire to be "in a team". Telephone scammers often pose as school teachers, social workers or technical support staff of popular games and social networks. As a result, children themselves give the scammers confirmation codes, logins, passwords or bank card details of their parents.

The third reason is the inclusion of children in criminal schemes as unwitting accomplices. In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of cases where teenagers are used as “droppers” or “cashiers”. For a small fee, a child agrees to conduct a transaction through his bank card, not realizing that he is becoming a link in the money laundering chain. Without proper legal regulation, schools and guardianship authorities are effectively deprived of tools for early detection of such risks and prevention of minors from being involved in criminal schemes.

Fourthly, the current system of legislation in the Russian Federation in the field of cybersecurity is rather general in nature. Laws aimed at combating fraud, bank card fraud, countering the spread of malware and protecting personal data concern all citizens without a separate focus on the children's category. At the same time, school educational programs, as a rule, do not include mandatory courses on digital security, which leaves a huge gap in prevention.

Thus, measures to educate and prevent juvenile crime are an important area of ​​activity that should be systemic and widespread. Unfortunately, such an approach is not yet observed in this area. The initiative with the law may allow this area to be activated.

— What are the special features of protecting children from fraudsters?

— You can’t give a child a tablet, phone or computer just to keep them busy and not demand parental attention. And if you do that, then parents shouldn’t be surprised later why the child was involved in illegal activity on the Internet.

Children are more trusting, prone to impulsive decisions and poorly aware of online risks, so systematic digital security education should be the basis for protection. Introducing mandatory cybersecurity courses into the school curriculum will allow children to learn about common fraudulent schemes, social engineering methods and rules for safe online behavior.

An additional measure should be the widespread implementation of parental controls and technical filters. Parents should have tools to restrict access to dangerous sites, monitor suspicious activity, and receive notifications about risky online activities of their children. IT companies, telecom operators, and banks can also contribute by implementing early detection systems for fraudulent transactions involving minors.

It is equally important to educate children about the legal consequences of participating in criminal schemes, as well as to train parents and teachers to recognize warning signs. The creation of a state online platform for children's cybersecurity will help to combine educational materials, hotlines, and tools for rapid response.

— Will the bill proposed by deputies help protect children from fraudsters?

— The problem of preventing juvenile and child crime is relevant, and the measures in the bill are quite clear. The main problem is that the law itself, focused only on prevention, will not be able to replace technical protective measures, preventing fraudsters’ actions and rapid response systems from banks and Internet companies. Without a comprehensive approach, which should include tough measures against fraudsters and the active participation of IT companies, the effectiveness of these lectures may remain low.

In addition, the success of the law will depend on its implementation in schools and universities so that it does not become a formality. Therefore, it is important to develop guidelines for teachers, involve cybersecurity specialists and use modern teaching methods.