Such a terrible thing as mobile phone fraud exists at relatively equal quantities in all countries of the world. What differs significantly is how that fraud is performed in a specific country. For example, the methods of phone fraud (fixed and mobile) common for the U.S. is described at http://www.fbi.gov/scams-safety/fraud/fraud

 

If you are going to visit Russian Federation, you will probably take your Internet-connected mobile phone with you. Not every phone will do, however. Those living in Europe should not bother: their phones will work in every Russian city, town or village. The U.S. phones use different standard, so if you live there, first go prepare a multi-standard phone designed to work in Europe, and it will perform in Russia as well.

First, remember: there is not more or less mobile phone fraud in Russian Federation than in any other country of the world. It is just different, like in any other country of the world. In this article we will describe the methods of phone fraud common for Russia country and give foreign tourists advises on how not to become victims of such fraud.

 

During your visit to Russia, you will notice strange machines uncommon for Western countries. These machines resemble ATMs, but are much slimmer and have larger LCD screens which, unlike those used in ATMs, are touch sensitive. Some are standalone and upright, standing in stores or outdoors, others are smaller and are suspended from newspaper, bus ticket and other booths. What are they? They are invented in Russia and are produced locally. Here in Russia it is called "paying automats", since it is common for our language to call any coin- or bill-operated machines "automats".

These machines cannot access credit cards or provide cash. If you need to, you have to use a real ATM which can be easily distinguished from "paying automats" that do just the opposite: they accept cash (in most cases, only in paper form) and transfer the accepted money to the account of the mobile phone number you enter by tapping the touch screen. A small fee of several percents is subtracted from your payment during this process. When the payment is finished, the phone being paid for will receive an SMS telling that money has been successfully transferred to its SIM card account.

 

What happens if you enter an incorrect phone number during paying for your cellphone using such a machine? Well, if you keep your receipt (by the way, it prints receipts just like ATM does), you can call special support number printed on it and tell the human operator about your mistake. But what if someone else makes a similar mistake?

One day, you can receive a message which looks exactly like the message is received when payment from such a machine is made. Shortly after, someone may call you and scream that he or she has made a mistake and accidentally paid for your phone instead of his/her, and that you should immediately run to the nearest "paying automat" and compensate this. But did this really happen? To find this out, first check your phone's balance. Did it really grow? If not, you are being tricked. Do not search for the nearest machine, otherwise you will become another victim of fraud. Also, check the name of the message sender. Messages that really originate from the network operator have sender names similar to the operator's trademark. Fraudulent messages, on the other hand, originate in most cases from ordinary mobile phone numbers.

Please be sure to protect your mobile phone using special mobile internet safety software. This will protect you against malware and viruses distributed over wireless conection - Bluetooth and WiFi.