There is a database of Armenian landline numbers on the Internet that is in the hands of scammers – Artur Papyan

Speaking with Alpha News, media expert Artur Papyan talked about calls made to citizens from unknown phone numbers.

“In this case, these are not so much cybercriminals but simple scammers who use voice technology. That is, they bait people, it is a classic phishing method. They can find personal data about people from anywhere, it is not hard since the situation with personal data protection in Armenia is catastrophic. There are many leaks of phone numbers and people’s personal data. Therefore, it is not difficult for criminals and scammers to find personal data about Armenian citizens,” the media expert said.

Papyan is sure that the database of phone numbers of Armenian citizens that is circulating on the Internet is in the hands of these scammers.

“There is a database of Armenian landline numbers on the Internet, probably, the data fell into the hands of this gang. They see whose name the phone number is registered to, and almost always landline numbers are registered to the name of the property owner, because they are a bit of old technology. The property owner once buys and registers it.

So it is no surprise that, in most cases, the target is elderly people. In addition, there is a voter’s register in Armenia, through which one can see who is registered at that address, establish contacts with relatives and friends by seeing who lives with whom, and then invent a very convincing story,” Artur Papyan noted.

The media expert explained the calls from foreign numbers as an easy way to cover tracks.

“They call from foreign numbers so that it is easy to cover the tracks. Of course, it will be possible to identify calls from Armenia’s internal network. I do not have enough data to figure out where the calls are coming from, but we have studied the cases of such crimes in the past. They used different types of virtual phone numbers or virtual cards providing numbers.

There are even hacked SIM cards. Telephone technology is rather poorly protected. It is possible to make a fake name and number.

The story started from the moment when there was a leak of personal data in Armenia and no one was held accountable for it, and companies that were guilty did not call their subscribers and inform them that their data is circulating on the Internet and probably at some point criminals can exploit this,” Artur Papyan concluded.