Fraudsters are deceiving residents of Tatarstan with fake hot water shutdown schedules.

      Version

      

      

      

       //

      

      

       Society

      

      

      

       //

       Scammers deceive residents of Tatarstan with fake hot water shutdown schedules

      

      

      

      

      

      

      

      

      

      

      

       Scammers deceive residents of Tatarstan with fake hot water shutdown schedules

      

       435

      

      

      

      Scammers deceive residents of Tatarstan with fake hot water shutdown schedules (photo: shedevrum.ai)

      

      

      

      

      

      

      

      

      

      

       Seasonal activities of phone and internet scammers in Russia continue to mutate and adapt to current events, and in May, criminals adopted a new scheme exploiting communal themes.

       As reported on Tuesday at a press conference at the news agency "Tatar-inform" by Albert Yakovlev, Deputy Minister of Digital Development, State Administration, Information Technologies and Communications of the Republic of Tatarstan, there is currently a mass malicious distribution of messages purportedly from management companies, in which residents are offered to follow a link to familiarize themselves with the current schedule of hot water shutdowns in their building. In reality, however, a trusting citizen who clicks on this link ends up on a high-quality phishing site, through which a malicious virus is silently downloaded and installed on the user's device, capable of stealing personal data, passwords, and access to banking applications. Yakovlev also reminded about other seasonal fraud scenarios that activate at certain times of the year. For example, in spring, scammers traditionally use a romantic trick such as flower delivery: a person receives a call from a supposed courier with a bouquet from an unknown admirer and is asked only to provide a code from an SMS message, which is supposedly needed for reporting the delivery, although in reality, this code is a key to hacking the personal account on the "Gosuslugi" portal. Similar phishing links are mass-distributed during the admission period for applicants to universities, during the tax campaign, and at other seasonal events that concern the general public in one way or another. The Deputy Minister urged citizens to remain extremely vigilant and under no circumstances click on suspicious links from unknown senders. It was previously reported that a resident of Kazan sold her property and gave 11 million to scammers.

       Arina Mikhaylova

      

      

      

      

      

       Published: 20.05.2026 21:55

       Edited: 20.05.2026 21:55