For the second time, the cyberpolice co-organized the information campaign #ShahrayGoodbye (Fraudster – ed). Its goal is to raise public awareness of cyber hygiene and create a culture of safe behavior in cyberspace, as well as to remind the basic rules of security of cashless payments. This was discussed at a briefing on February 14 with the participation of representatives of the Cyber Police Department of the National Police of Ukraine (NPU) and the National Bank.

The project brought together about 80 partners - the National Bank, the National Police Cyberpolice Department, EMA, banks, payment systems, mobile operators, online stores, postal services, regional state administrations and others. The information campaign will last for the next three months in all regions of Ukraine.

According to the Unit of the Department of Combating Computer Systems Crimes of the Cyberpolice Department Yevhen Dorohanov, the most common scenarios of fraud last year: the sale of non-existent goods, pseudo-prises, phone fraud, phishing resources to embezzle money or collect personal data, seizing money under the pretence of excess profit and asking acquaintances about help on social networks. In total, cybercriminals cheated citizens by more than UAH 193 million last year.

Thus, during 2021, the cyberpolice managed to document criminal activities and send to court more than 2,000 criminal proceedings related to Internet fraud, which involved 422 criminals. Also in work at present, there are more than 6600 proceedings. By the way, fraudulent actions on the Internet account for almost 70% of all appeals to the cyberpolice.

Meanwhile, according to the National Bank, the level of losses from illegal actions with payment cards in the total volume of all such transactions remained relatively low. Last year, each million of expenditure transactions using payment cards accounted for UAH 65 as illegal actions or suspicious transactions, which is slightly more than the 2020 figure of UAH 48.

"That's why we need to remind citizens about the rules of secure online payments and behavior in cyberspace. After all, the main weapon against fraudsters today is awareness," said Oleksii Shaban, Deputy Governor of the National Bank.

"Despite the fact that the cyberpolice is conducting an active fight, Internet attackers are constantly improving their schemes or inventing new ones. Therefore, we focus on preventive activities with the population, because knowledge of the basic rules of cyber hygiene minimizes the risk of suffering from criminal acts of hackers or Internet fraudsters," said Yevhen Dorohanov.