Fraud with SNILS: schemes and methods on how to avoid becoming a victim of scammers

Pension interest

Citizens who become victims of such scammers immediately think that they will issue a loan to them or otherwise take possession of their money. No, this scam does not involve such dangers. Its goal is to transfer citizens' pension savings to non-state pension funds. The methods for carrying out such deception are as follows:

Fraudsters give false information about the procedure for accumulating pensions and the necessary actions for this. Thus, people who do not know the nuances are manipulated and their pensions are transferred to another pension fund.
Under the guise of representatives of a recruitment agency (which in fact does not exist), scammers force people in need of employment to transfer their savings to another pension fund, presenting this as a prerequisite for getting a job.

In practice, both schemes can acquire many features depending on the specific situation, but their essence remains unchanged.

Effective measures to protect against fraudsters

Expert advice that will help you avoid unpleasant situations associated with certain actions of fraudsters in the field of compulsory pension insurance:

If you have the slightest doubt whether it is possible to disclose your SNILS number to unauthorized third parties, do not do it. Remember that most often refusing this will be the right decision. Neither police officers, nor representatives of house management, nor employees of the Pension Fund of Russia will ever carry out on-site checks of SNILS and demand your data.
No crusts, official papers or forms mean the right of third parties to request the insurance number of an individual personal account without your consent. Answering the question about whether it is possible to give SNILS to strangers in passages near the metro or when visiting an apartment, the answer is unequivocal - no. No one will fine you for this or hold you accountable. Such threats are tricks of scammers.
Do not forget that there are only a few situations when you need to provide a SNILS number, among them: official employment, seeking advice from the Pension Fund of Russia, requesting information on the State Services portal. Thus, personnel department employees, Pension Fund employees on the territory of the regional representative office and the administration of the State Services portal are among those who can check the SNILS of a citizen of the Russian Federation.

What do scammers come up with?

To obtain SNILS data, self-proclaimed representatives of the Russian Pension Fund go door to door and even approach people on the streets. Of course, they are all young, attractive and neatly dressed, which inspires confidence among citizens. The scammers present identification cards of Pension Fund employees, which, however, are fake.

The pretexts under which they are interested in SNILS data can be completely different. The most common are the following:

The need to prepare documents so that the percentage of contributions to the funded part of the pension will not decrease.
Conducting a census by the Pension Fund of Russia to prepare additional documents, without which pension certificates will lose legal force.
Directly offering to transfer the pension to a non-state fund, promising a lot of bonuses and advantages for this.

You need to know that in all cases the pensioner is faced with fraudsters, because the Pension Fund does not conduct any censuses and does not visit its clients at home, with the exception of incapacitated pensioners and only upon their application or the application of their legal representatives.

How to apply for SNILS for a child

Today, all citizens of the Russian Federation receive SNILS along with their birth certificate. But if a child was born before this innovation, then he needs to receive such a document separately. In order for a child under 14 years of age to receive it, one of the parents needs to come to the Pension Fund or the MFC with their passport and the child’s birth certificate.

If the child is over 14 years old, then the situation becomes much simpler. He can no longer bother his parents and personally contact the Pension Fund or MFC branch, taking with him only his passport.

What documents are needed to obtain SNILS (adult, child)

When the paperwork has been completed, any citizen begins to wait for the day when he will be called by an employee of the Pension Fund or the MFC, where he can receive SNILS.

The main thing is that when an organization calls for a SNILS, the citizen must have the following documents with him:

passport;

Important!
If the citizen who issued SNILS for himself is a foreigner, then it is logical that his passport will be drawn up in a language other than Russian. In this case, he will need to provide a translation of the passport certified by a notary.

a pre-filled questionnaire;
separately for foreigners - a permit that gives the opportunity to reside in the Russian Federation.

The list of documents is similar for children, only their passport is replaced by a birth certificate.

Fictitious recruitment agencies

In Moscow, St. Petersburg and other large cities of Russia there are many recruitment agencies that attract workers and representatives of the service sector with promises of employment for well-paid vacancies.

Among the questionnaires filled out by applicants is an agreement to transfer pension savings to another fund. People, unfortunately, do not hesitate to sign such agreements. After some time, they receive a call asking them to confirm the transfer of money, and then they promise to call them with a job offer. But there is no call again. People transfer their savings to an unknown private foundation, but do not receive work. At the same time, the fake recruitment agency will promise that there will be vacancies soon, you just need to wait.

Instructions for obtaining SNILS

Now about exactly how SNILS is drawn up and obtained. There are two methods that any citizen can use:

Apply for a job.
Independent visit to the MFC or Pension Fund.

Foreigners living and working in the country are required to go through all the necessary procedures to obtain the required document, which can be done either through the Pension Fund office or at work.

Individuals who pay contributions to the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation are able to issue a card for themselves and receive their own insurance number.

Parents who want to make SNILS for their child need to come to the MFC or Pension Fund as soon as possible, bringing with them the child’s birth certificate and their passports.

How to issue SNILS for an adult citizen

Getting a job. When a Russian applies for a position, he must fill out a form. The employer, having received it, sends this document to the territorial branch of the Pension Fund. 5 days after sending the questionnaire, the employer receives a ready-made SNILS, which should go to the newly hired employee.

On one's own. If a citizen does not get a job, but still needs SNILS, then he can get it on his own. To do this, he must go to the local branch of the Pension Fund or the MFC himself. There you need to submit a form and, of course, your passport.

Important!
The Pension Fund issues the document on the day of application. But you can get it at the MFC only after 5 days.

What is the scammers' interest?

The direct perpetrators of scams involving pension contributions have a financial interest in this. For each new client of the NPF, after transferring the funded part of his pension, he pays such “recruiters” from 3 to 5 thousand rubles.

The non-state pension fund itself uses the accumulated savings to invest and receive additional income. Their income, of course, significantly exceeds the 5-6% interest that recruiters receive.

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Oddly enough, sometimes clients of the pension fund also benefit, because some non-state funds pay a higher interest on deposits than the Pension Fund. The main danger is less stability of their position in the future. Unlike a state pension fund, a private one cannot so firmly guarantee the preservation of savings.

Common fraud schemes using SNILS number

Several common schemes allow fraudsters to obtain a SNILS number from citizens:

conducting a social survey;
registration with a recruitment agency or employment center;
verification of documents on behalf of a particular government organization;
re-registration on behalf of the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation.

Remember that the Pension Fund never practices censuses, re-registrations or remote processing of documents. It is illegal to transfer your savings to a non-state pension fund or gain access to your other documents - this is what you can do if you know your SNILS number and last name. This is precisely why such “performances” are organized in entrances, on the streets and near metro stations.

Why are scammers so active and what benefit do they have from transferring your pension savings to another organization?

The thing is that for each new client, the NPF pays such “volunteers” a personal monetary reward, and their earnings directly depend on the number of defrauded citizens.

This is why scammers need SNILS and why they are so actively seeking to obtain it. Moreover, the reward is decent, approximately 3000-5000 rubles.

However, we hasten to reassure you: you will not face any real financial losses; scammers cannot steal your pension or take out a loan in your name. True, there have been cases when non-state pension funds were declared bankrupt or simply turned out to be fake shell companies. But in these cases, the state will protect your savings and return them, although even in this case there is little pleasant in such a situation.

Obtaining information about documents from the State Services portal is another option for how scammers can use a stranger’s SNILS number. What will this give them? The worst thing they can do after this is to forge the necessary papers to use them in criminal schemes. And here you can really face the fact that they will issue a loan for you or change the insurance company, or use your passport data in one way or another. All these problems can be solved, and in order to avoid unnecessary hassle, experts recommend taking care of your documents and not providing data to strangers. However, such fraud with SNILS in 2020 is only possible if you used your individual personal account insurance number on the State Services website as a login or password. However, the portal itself suggests replacing it with email and this, of course, is much safer.

Remember that by leaving your data on the site or accessing the portal from someone else’s computer, you risk becoming a victim of fraud, especially do not do this in dubious Internet cafes. If you had to access the site from a relative or friend’s computer, make sure that the login data is not automatically saved in the browser. If you follow all the above recommendations, then you will not be afraid of “divorce” according to SNILS in 2020 or any other year.

Does SNILS give access to personal information about a person and his income?

If the SNILS number is known, then the maximum that can be found out is information about the amount of pension contributions of a particular citizen. A skilled fraudster, however, is able to calculate from them the amount of your income in a given period of time. Why does he need this, because not a single fraudster can transfer your funds or withdraw them from bank cards to their personal accounts, knowing only the insurance number of an individual personal account? Information even about the approximate level of your income will enable scammers to determine whether it is worth hunting for your property or deposits - that’s why scammers ask for your SNILS number. However, scammers will only be able to obtain such information if they hack your personal account on the State Services website, and this is not so easy.

A more common type of fraud is selling a client to a non-state pension fund. All you need for this is your SNILS number, passport details and your signature, although scammers often neglect the latter. Others place the required document between other, non-threatening papers. But can scammers use your SNILS number to transfer the funded part of your pension to a non-state pension fund without your consent? Alas, yes. Of course, this is officially prohibited, but otherwise such a scheme would not be considered fraud. The whole point is that your consent in the form of a statement is either falsified or given for signature under the guise of another document. That is why, when strangers walk around the entrances and ask you to sign to confirm your refusal/consent to something, before doing so, carefully read all the papers offered to you.

Many people are concerned about whether they can take out a loan using their SNILS number, re-register their home, or withdraw funds from bank accounts. No! But with the help of SNILS, fraudsters can gain access to your documents and data on the State Services portal and after that use them for their own selfish purposes.

Encroachment on property when requesting SNILS

Another new type of fraud is imaginary payments for refusal of spa treatment on behalf of the Pension Fund. In a telephone call, representatives of the pension fund allegedly say that the pensioner has been allocated a trip, but needs to go right now. Having received a natural refusal, they are interested in bank card data for transferring compensation, while asking for passport data and SNILS number. Often, gullible citizens report everything, right down to the PIN code of their bank card.

Another way to get money using SNILS, which is used by unscrupulous businessmen, is to transfer the funded part of the pension to a fake NPF, then withdrawing it from the accounts and disappearing in an unknown direction.

Why is the simplified registration option on the State Services portal dangerous?

– a convenient and functional service that provides the opportunity to use and store your data remotely, as well as order services from government agencies. And scammers could not ignore such a resource. It is no secret that one of the registration options on the portal involves using your insurance number for an individual personal account. But to avoid becoming a victim of scammers, it is better to use an email address instead. This will help protect your data.

What to do if you become a victim of scammers?

There is a lot of advice on the Internet, the essence of which boils down to contacting law enforcement agencies if your money is transferred to a non-state pension fund. In fact, such advice is meaningless, because even when transferring money under the influence of deception, the corpus delicti of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation is not formed, because the scammers do not appropriate the victim’s money.

Therefore, a citizen who wants to return savings back to the Pension Fund needs to write a corresponding application to this fund.

The transfer will be carried out in March of the following year, after the year in which the application was submitted. The money will be transferred along with interest that was accrued by another pension fund.

A fund that has received the client’s money fraudulently can be contacted with a written claim, but only if the client himself has not given voluntary written consent to the transfer.

If the fund does not give a reasoned response to the claim, the victim has the right to go to court with a claim for the unlawful enrichment of the NPF with the help of money that the fund received by deception. For this, you can demand compensation in the form of the fund’s profit from investing this amount of money.

Such litigation may bring significant benefits to the plaintiff, but it will inevitably drag on for many months, and perhaps years.

What can scammers do if they know their SNILS number, passport details and TIN

Attackers are actively hunting for the personal data of citizens, and they are interested not only in SNILS, but also in passports, tax identification numbers and other documents - their numbers and series, as well as other information.

Why is it dangerous to provide certain documents to scammers?

SNILS. If an attacker somehow finds out the certificate number of a specific person, he will simply fill out an application on his own, sign it and transfer the accumulated pension contributions from his personal account from the Pension Fund to a non-state fund, which has its own interest rates. For each such trick, the fraudster receives a reward from the employer in the amount of 1,000 to 2,000 rubles, sometimes more. Many people even sign applications on their own, filling them out without reading the proposed document at all.
Passport details. Having a copy or photograph of the pages of a citizen's passport in hand, attackers can perform various actions. Most often, passport data is used to achieve the following goals: taking out a loan from a microfinance organization, applying for a loan with the help of accomplices in a large bank, registering a company on behalf of the victim, which will engage in illegal activities. Practice shows that with the help of passport data, fraudsters can perform almost any action that is available to the real owner of the document. Even the photo doesn't matter.
TIN. The TIN is not of particular value to fraudsters, because if you only have an individual tax number, there is no way to get rich or carry out fraudulent schemes - you will definitely need a passport or something else. Therefore, the TIN is usually stolen along with data from other documents of the victim.

Related article: What does SNILS consist of and what do the numbers in the insurance number mean?

Important! If you have passport data, fraudsters can request a TIN through government services.

Development of SNILS fraud

Russia is constantly improving access to a number of government services using the Internet. In particular, on the State Services portal you will be able to access many functions simply by entering your SNILS number. Accordingly, attackers who receive this number will even be able to obtain a person’s passport data. And this opens up completely different opportunities for them to steal money. In particular, the practice of issuing loans to other citizens will become very common.

Such a system has not yet been introduced, but the current one, in which the SNILS number is supplemented with a password, is not an absolute protection against fraudsters, because the password can be hacked and then, if there is a SNILS, scammers will also have access to a person’s confidential information.

Already now, those citizens who use the simplified access system on the State Services portal are at quite a big risk. It is especially important for them to keep their SNILS number and not share it with anyone.

In general, deception with this number, although not a crime, as long as the scammers do not embezzle other people’s money, gives them ample opportunities to manipulate citizens’ funds, which also poses dangers.

What to do if you lost your SNILS card

SNILS is issued for every resident of the Russian Federation. As a rule, it is assigned to his individual personal account.

However, it is still possible to lose the document itself, although this is not encouraged. But once this happens, there is no need to panic - it is quite easy to restore.

There are three ways how this can be done:

At work. An employee who has lost such a document should contact HR. He provides them with an application for the issuance of a document, which confirms registration.
On one's own. A self-employed person (for example, a lawyer, individual entrepreneur, notary) must contact the territorial office of the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation and submit an application there. If a person does not have a job and is not self-employed, then he can also go to the above-mentioned places and also apply for SNILS restoration.
Via the Internet. If you look into your personal account on the website of the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation, you will see the presence of a special service for obtaining a document that can help confirm registration in the personalized accounting system.

Each of these three methods can lead to a specific result - obtaining a restored SNILS.

When SNILS asks the house management

As of January 1, 2018, liability came into force that comes with the disclosure of information about the activities of a homeowners’ association, management company, etc.

Fraudulent schemes using SNILS and how ordinary citizens are deceived

When SNILS is entered into the system, this allows you to link a personalized account with a specific person. In addition, there are more opportunities to collect debt from the property owner.

Thus, non-payment of utilities ceases to be a problem in the relationship between the management company and the owner of the apartment, but becomes a violation of an obligation, which is automatically recorded in the state system.