Beware of fraudsters!

10:36, October 26, 2023

There are more and more cases of fraud, the victims of which are our applicants and students.

Dear students, we would like to draw your attention to the fact that recently there are more and more cases of fraud, the victims of which are our applicants and students. Please be careful.

For your safety we have prepared a list of standard fraud schemes. Remember that this list is not definitive, and scammers will come up with new schemes again and again. Please read this memo carefully to avoid encountering scams.

Examples of common scam schemes:

• An invitation to join a group on one of the messengers, such as WhatsApp. The group may be dedicated to travelling to Russia. You are offered to transfer money via cryptocurrency. The first small amount is transferred to you, and the rest (usually very large), no one returns it to you.
• One of your classmates offers you to participate in a financial pyramid scheme: today you have to give some amount, and at the end of each month you will receive 30% of this amount. You are promised that in just a few months all your investments will pay off. Please do not believe it! Your investment will not pay off, and moreover, you will not get back the invested amount.
• You are offered to withdraw a large sum of money to buy real estate, a car or other expensive goods. Do not agree: you will transfer the money to the scammer, and he will disappear with it.
• The agent's assistant asks you for money to prepay your tuition, the prepayment does not reach the university, and the assistant agent disappears.

We ask you to follow four simple rules for your safety:

1. There is no such thing as an easy and quick way to make a large sum of money. 
2. You can be cheated out of money even by your close friends and classmates. 
3. Do not enter into any financial relationship without a contract.
4. Even if there is a contract, read it carefully before signing it.
5. By ignoring the previous 3 rules, you risk losing your money with no right of return.

Remember, your money is your responsibility. The University is not responsible for your financial dealings with third parties who are not true partners of the University.

If you are in doubt whether the agent in front of you is a real agent or not, you can contact us at rfl@urfu.ru and check directly with the department staff whether we cooperate with such an agent or not.

Be careful!