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- Bouquet period: how scammers use the theme of buying flowers by September 1st
Bouquet period: how scammers use the theme of buying flowers by September 1st
Fraudsters may use the topic of buying bouquets by September 1 to deceive Russians, experts have warned about this. Every parent who is preparing a child for school plans to buy flowers at the end of August. At the same time, many people tend to buy bouquets cheaper and faster — it is this excitement that attracts intruders who use a variety of schemes. For more information about how scammers use the bouquet theme by September 1 and how to protect themselves from their tricks, see the Izvestia article
What is the theme of bouquets for the Day of Knowledge interesting to scammers?
The period of school fees is a great stress for parents of students, who must do everything in time: buy school and sports uniforms, change and sports shoes, enroll children in additional sections, and much more. At the same time, one of the mandatory elements of such training is the purchase of bouquets for teachers by September 1.
— A bouquet by September 1 for a teacher is an obligatory part of the traditions of this day, so every parent, when collecting a child for school, plans to buy flowers, — says Alexandra Shmigirilova, GR director of the Security Code information Security company, in an interview with Izvestia. — Given the high demand and excitement, many will be looking for an opportunity to purchase bouquets cheaper and on time.
And if at this moment a profitable offer for a quick purchase of flowers appears, many will prefer to use it without thinking about the level of security that scammers can take advantage of, the expert notes.
Ksenia Akhrameeva, Candidate of Technical Sciences, associate professor, head of the laboratory for the development and promotion of cybersecurity competencies at Gazinformservice, agrees with this: according to her, during the hype before September 1, the offer of a profitable bouquet order may not include critical thinking in a potential victim of scams — on the contrary, her brain will simply tick the shopping list.
What bouquet schemes should we expect by September 1 in 2025
At the end of the summer of 2025, scammers traditionally try to use fake websites with offers to buy bouquets by September 1, Ksenia Akhrameeva says in an interview with Izvestia. To attract attention, these sites offer discounts and tempting promotions that affect the psychology of potential victims, disabling their critical thinking.
— In addition to losses in the amount of the cost of the bouquet and the ruined Knowledge Day, the buyer risks losing access to his personal data if he dictates the numbers from the SMS under the guise of order confirmation, — says the expert.
According to Maria Mikhailova, head of the Angara SOC brand protection group, if a potential victim requests a photo of a ready-made bouquet from scammers before delivery to verify the authenticity of the offer, attackers can use a neural network and simply generate photos of beautiful flowers.
In addition, according to the head of BI.Dmitry Kiryushkin's ZONE Brand Protection, it is not uncommon for scammers to place advertisements on online platforms for the sale of flowers with suspiciously low prices. As a rule, after paying for the order, the attackers receive money, but the bouquet never reaches the buyer.
At the same time, on such sites, the generated photos of bouquets may not arouse suspicion, since real sellers sometimes use colorful pictures from neural networks to attract attention to their ads, adds Maria Mikhailova.
— Do not forget that the attention of scammers can also be focused on initiatives like buying one bouquet for the whole class, when the remaining money is sent to charity, — says Andrey Sidenko, head of online child safety at Kaspersky Lab. — Such schemes can also be used as an excuse to raise funds.
What schemes on the topic of bouquets for September 1 have been encountered before
Fraudsters have used various schemes related to offering bouquets for teachers on Knowledge Day before. In particular, according to Maria Mikhailova, in 2024, before the Day of Knowledge, attackers published ads offering luxurious bouquets at low prices.
— This cost was explained by the lack of costs for the export of flowers — allegedly they were all grown in the region of sale, — says the interlocutor of Izvestia. — As a result, the victim entered his card details on a phishing site and eventually lost all funds.
In addition, as Ksenia Akhrameeva notes, fake websites of well-known flower delivery stores appeared online on the eve of September 1. It was possible to place an order there with a prepayment, but the flowers were not delivered at the proper time. In addition, the scammers used an ingenious technique in which bouquets were actually brought to potential victims.
However, they were asked to confirm receipt of the flowers by entering the SMS code from the phishing link. This allowed fraudsters to gain access to both financial instruments and users' personal accounts on the Gosuslugi portal.
What are the dangers of bouquet schemes for Knowledge Day and how to protect yourself from them
The "bouquet" schemes of scammers are aimed at everyone who gathers children to school, so the coverage of potential victims is quite wide, Alexandra Shmigirilova says in an interview with Izvestia. First of all, working parents are at risk, who, on the one hand, do not have time for personal visits to flower shops, and on the other, have a limited budget for bouquets, given the high cost of the entire process of preparing for school.
"Such buyers will be especially happy to take advantage of favorable offers from sellers who allegedly promise to solve their problems and deliver flowers at a certain time at an affordable price," the expert notes.
At the same time, the risks of such schemes lie not only in the loss of money given for bouquets and a spoiled mood before Knowledge Day, but also in the loss of access to personal accounts of financial organizations and government accounts, Ksenia Akhrameeva emphasizes. In order to protect yourself from such threats, experts recommend following a number of safety rules before Knowledge Day. First of all, you should be careful about big discounts and promotions, since scammers often attract potential victims with various bonuses and prices below market prices, says Dmitry Kiryushkin.
— To protect yourself, you should buy bouquets only from trusted flower salons, preferably through official websites or applications, — advises Andrey Sidenko. — Do not follow links from random mailings and do not enter payment information on suspicious pages.
Cybersecurity experts recommend always checking website addresses: phishing resources can very plausibly disguise themselves as real domains. In addition, it is necessary to pay attention to the warnings of the browser and security systems, since a reliable security solution can block access to fake resources in a timely manner.
"And if the courier asks you to name some code from the SMS, confirming receipt of flowers, feel free to refuse. It's better to get one bouquet less than to lose a couple million rubles," concludes Alyona Yartseva, an analyst at the Positive Technologies research group.
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