FSB and Yandex trick Russians wishing to join Russian volunteer formations in Ukraine into giving personal details
Russian activists and media believe that several websites which are copies of the Freedom of Russia Legion and the Russian Volunteer Corps sites are actually traps set up by the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB).
Source: Meduza, a Latvian-based Russian media outlet
Details: These websites, which appeared at the top of Yandex search results but did not show up in Google search results, collect data from people who are potentially interested in joining the organisations.
Russian IT specialists are convinced that Yandex is deliberately promoting fake websites that may be linked to the Russian security forces, and they have accused the company of collaborating with the FSB.
The fake websites are currently inaccessible, but cached versions still occupy the top spot in Yandex search results.
Volunteers fighting within the Armed Forces of Ukraine have confirmed that these are not their websites.
The fake sites have domain names that are just one letter different from those of the genuine sites – a typical phishing tactic often used by scammers to steal money or personal information.
One of the IT specialists noted that unlike the real websites, the fake sites did not include bank details for transferring donations. But both sites featured a form for collecting data such as the respondent’s gender, age, contact details and location. Users could submit this information themselves through these forms.
However, it cannot be definitively stated who created or maintains these sites. The fake Freedom of Russia Legion website was registered in December 2023, and the Russian Volunteer Corps website in August of the same year. All the details were concealed when the domain names were registered.
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