Redazione RHC : 25 August 2025 10:01
F6 has reported a sharp increase in fraud in which criminals exploit minors to access their parents’ bank accounts. According to analysts, approximately 3,500 such cases were recorded in the first half of 2025. The main victims were children between the ages of 10 and 14. This is facilitated by free access to smartphones and computers, in a context of low digital literacy.
Attack scenarios range from short to months-long and depend on the child’s ability to access adults’ devices and financial information. As of December 2024, F6 specialists counted around a hundred such incidents, and in the first half of 2025, the average monthly number of attacks nearly sixfold, reaching around 580.
Attackers approach children in the places where they spend most of their time. They lure younger children into conversations about popular games like Roblox, Minecraft, and Standoff 2, often posing as bloggers and streamers and promising prizes or in-game currency.
Teens are often lured through the FakeBoss system, posing as school, government agency, telecom operator, or delivery service employees and requesting codes via SMS.
This is followed by intimidation with stories of hacking and parental “criminal liability” and a series of instructions on how to access banking apps. Children are persuaded to discreetly take a photo of an unlocked phone screen with banking icons, spy on a PIN code, transfer money, or even apply for a loan.
Nighttime incidents are particularly notable, when a child is asked to place a sleeping parent’s finger on a sensor if biometrics are enabled on the device.
According to F6, child-based attacks are among the six most dangerous fraudulent schemes. The company notes that criminals use the same pressure techniques as adults and are increasingly relying on intimidation.
Experts recommend banks rely on behavioral analysis and updated detection rules to promptly recognize anomalous scenarios. Parents are advised to combine Encourage the use of gadgets with digital hygiene rules from an early age, enable parental controls, ensure maximum privacy on social networks, explain the prohibition on transferring codes via SMS and any banking data, and maintain a confidential dialogue with children so they immediately report suspicious contacts.
F6 emphasizes that effective prevention requires talking to teenagers in a language they understand and through familiar channels: social networks, bloggers, games, and cartoons.
The company says it is developing tools to counter such patterns and updating its threat detection models based on behavioral signals.
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