Only 0.2% of Russians fully know what information on a bank card and to whom they can provide, according to the message of the Visa payment system based on the results of the survey. It was attended by 1,613 people aged 18 to 65: bank card holders and active users of digital banking services living in cities with a population of 100,000 or more. The respondent could choose several answer options.
Almost all of the respondents (90%) are familiar with certain security rules – not to tell third parties the cvv code, confirmation code from SMS messages, access code to the online bank, make payments only on official websites, do not write down the PIN code from the card. Pinpoint knowledge makes citizens vulnerable to fraudsters and the use of social engineering techniques, Visa said.
At the same time, 65% of respondents do not pay attention to the page address when paying on the Internet and do not know that a protected address begins with “https”. Only 35% of respondents were able to correctly name how a protected address begins.
73% of respondents pay for goods online, of which more than half consider this payment method to be safe. Confirming payment for purchases with a one-time code from an SMS message, 76% of Russians pay attention only to the amount charged, 67% to the confirmation code, 65% check the name of the online store, and 59% check the text of the message itself.
15% of respondents were ready to disclose personal data in a telephone conversation with fraudsters (for example, to provide information about the validity period of a bank card and the phone number to which it is linked), which are allegedly bank employees. Every fifth (20%) respondent was ready to disclose his home address to fraudsters. As a rule, older people give their address, who tend to respond positively to attention to them, especially if there are promises to improve their financial situation, says Veniamin Kaganov, director of the Association for the Development of Financial Literacy.
Russians consider two-factor authentication to be the most effective protection of payment data, a study by Visa has shown. But only 55% of respondents trust her, among men the indicator is higher – 61%. The most common method of protection was a one-time payment confirmation code – 74% of people use it. Despite the prevalence of the method, only every fourth respondent trusts it and considers it effective.
Biometrics is less common, but the level of trust in it is higher. Fingerprint recognition is used by 42% of respondents, 39% consider it a reliable method of identification. Face ID is used by 12% of respondents, while 14% trust. Only 3% of respondents use voice biometrics. In the absence of effective methods of protection, 12% of the respondents believe.
With the onset of the pandemic, there was a surge in fraud associated with the emergence of new scenarios of social engineering, such as receiving allegedly “business support benefits”, “soft loans”, offering large discounts on personal protective equipment and much more, the head of the risk management department said in the study. Visa in Russia by Evelina Nechiporenko. In her opinion, the most effective way to counter attackers is to teach people to recognize social engineering techniques.
The total amount of damage from the actions of fraudsters in 2020 increased by 1.5 times, reaching almost 10 billion rubles, in comparison with 2019, the Bank of Russia reported. Attackers stole about 70% of all stolen money using social engineering, in particular through telephone fraud. In the first half of this year, fraudsters stole 6 billion rubles from citizens, and returned only 7.4% or 430 million rubles to the victims. The share of refunds fell by 4.7 p.p. compared to January-June 2020. The share of refunds is decreasing from year to year – at the end of 2019, 14.6% (936 million rubles) of stolen funds were returned to citizens. 2020 – already 11.3% (1.1 billion).
The main reason for refusing to refund funds is that clients themselves disclose confidential information to fraudsters, and its disclosure violates the user agreement and removes responsibility from banks.
The regulator and banks are actively working to increase the financial literacy of citizens – the Association for the Development of Financial Literacy has been created, a strategy for increasing financial literacy has been adopted for the period 2017–2023. Almost all large banks have their own programs to improve financial literacy – Sberbank, VTB, Alfa-Bank, Tinkoff Bank.
Measurements, which were carried out by order of the Bank of Russia in 2020 (InFOM), showed an increase in the financial literacy index of Russians from 52 to 54 points (with 100 possible), a representative of the regulator said. According to the OECD methodology, the overall indicator of financial literacy in Russia increased from 12.2 to 12.4 points. For example, the share of citizens who know where to turn to protect their financial rights has increased (from 38 to 50%). The proportion of people with a relatively high level of financial literacy increased from 34 to 39%.
Financial fraud affects the population regardless of the level of their financial literacy, says Vladimir Galanov, Doctor of Economics from the PRUE. G.V. Plekhanov. Moreover, he believes, an increase in financial literacy is inevitably accompanied by an increase in financial fraud.
For a program to improve financial culture and literacy to be effective, it must be aimed not only at “loading” the human brain with knowledge, but also at teaching it to apply it, to form the skill of automatic behavior, says Kaganov. When dealing with fraudsters, you have to act at risk in conditions of uncertainty – this is stress, so not everyone may be prepared for it. That is, Kaganov explains, a person can know everything perfectly in theory, but under psychological pressure he can behave completely irrationally.
The representative of the regulator noted that financial habits are changing slowly, but there is a growing focus on more rational and prudent financial behavior. The formation of the skill of correct behavior is not even a matter of one or two years, Kaganov believes.
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