New – Old Scam Scheme: How Online Survey Fraud Works

Author: @iskatel007
Date: May 5, 2019

Christ is Risen, friends! Happy Bright Easter to all of you—wishing peace and prosperity to your homes. I’d like to share some information that may be new and useful for some, while others might remember the wild 90s and 2000s. As the saying goes, everything new is just well-forgotten and improved old tricks.

Let’s talk about fraud—specifically, deceiving ordinary people to steal their money. People are often eager to believe in miracles, and scammers take advantage of this. Recently, there’s been a surge in offers to participate in online surveys for cash rewards. In reality, you won’t gain anything—instead, you’ll lose out, as criminals steal your personal and payment information.

How the Scam Works

1. The user sees an ad inviting them to spend a few minutes taking a survey.
2. The user clicks the link and participates in the survey.
3. During the survey, the user is asked to provide their full name, email address, and phone number.
4. The site claims that a certain amount of money (usually tens of thousands of rubles) can be credited to the user’s account, but a “confirmation payment” is required.
5. The user is directed to a payment page and sees a form to enter their bank card details.
6. This payment page is not the real bank’s website, but a phishing site designed to steal your card information.

What happens to your data next is unpredictable:

• Scammers may make many small purchases using your card.
• Your data may be sold on carder websites (sites specializing in card theft).

Where You Might Encounter These Surveys

• Online games
• Social networks
• Video ads

It’s worth noting that video content often uses images of public figures to build trust with users. However, these scams can also appear in other places across the internet.

Examples

On April 17, subscribers of the VKontakte community “Karusel” (54,000 people) received a message asking them to take a paid survey. The message included a link to a site hosted on Ucoz, which then redirected users to another site.

A similar scam was previously described by “Kommersant.” The publication found that money was withdrawn through SIM cards and the personal account of the Tele2 mobile operator. According to Mobile Research Group analyst Eldar Murtazin, a vulnerability in the payment system allowed this scheme to operate, allegedly created by Tele2 itself to increase average revenue per user and grow its subscriber base. Tele2 denies any involvement with the scammers and claims to be fighting them.

Key Takeaways

• There’s no such thing as a free lunch—if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
• Scammers are always active, using modern technology and human trust to their advantage.

Wishing everyone happy holidays—stay vigilant and safe!

Prepared by: @iskatel007
Private Detective / Security Analyst / Information Security Specialist

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