Ekaterina Litvinova

2021: Moskvichka found that 1.7 thousand Bilain corporate numbers were registered for it without demand

In October 2021 TAdviser , a resident Moscow of Ekaterina Litvinova turned to the editorial office, who was faced with fraud when registering cell numbers on her. personal data From the words of Litvinova, it follows that she saw in her personal account on (EPGU Unified Portal state and Municipal Services, "Gousuly") 1732 information messages about the provision of the "Activation of Corporate SIM Card" service.

After checking some of these numbers, Litvinova found out that they belong to the VimpelCom cellular network (Beeline trademark). The subscriber service of VimpelCom Litvinova confirmed that the indicated numbers were actually issued for it. But applications for registration were sent from a legal entity, the name of which was refused to be disclosed to her.

Then Litvinova found in her personal account on the public services portal applications for registration of SIM cards indicating her passport data and the TIN of the applicant organization. Having checked this information from open sources, Litvinova found out that the applicant was St. Petersburg Promelektromontazh LLC.

Litvinova claims that she never worked in this organization and did not live in St. Petersburg, did not submit applications for registration of SIM cards and did not give permission to use her personal data.

In this regard, Litvinova appealed to the department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs at the place of residence with a statement on the initiation of a criminal case against Promelektromontazh in connection with the illegal use of its personal data. But she was denied the initiation of the case: the police justified this by the inability to establish the identity and method of registering SIM cards in the name of Litvinova and the absence of material damage. Litvinova also sent complaints to Roskomnadzor, Rospotrebnadzor, the Ministry of Finance and the prosecutor's office. There were no answers by the time the material was published (according to the law, answers should come before October 19, 2021).

In addition, Litvinova appealed to the VimpelCom office with a request to disconnect the indicated numbers. But the operator refused it, citing the fact that the payment of invoices for these numbers is not carried out by it, but by the mentioned organization, which is the subject of the relevant contract. Litvinova herself has also been a subscriber of VimpelCom since 2001: at first she had a corporate number, then he became personal.

After communicating with a TAdviser correspondent, Litvinova also found that her account on Gosuslug was entered from unknown devices. The complaint was sent to the technical support of the portal. Perhaps the unknown, having hacked Litvinova's account, confirmed the data on the mentioned phone numbers for her.

Note that Promelektromontazh is a living organization. According to the Contour-Focus base, in 2020 its revenue amounted to 3.1 million rubles, net profit - 228 thousand rubles. The general director and sole founder of the company is Elena Kirikova.

The press service of VimpelCom told TAdviser that, according to the Law "On Communications," legal entities are obliged to transmit data on end users of cellular numbers to the telecom operator.

For an unknown reason, here the employees of the legal entity indicated the personal data of the subscriber whose appeal we received, the company said. - In support of Bilain, the client was advised to use the "Report an error" feature in his personal account on the State Services website, where he discovered information about the registration of corporate numbers

Litvinova claims that there is no such function in her personal account on the public services portal. According to the screenshot from State Services provided by Litvinova, there is only the option to "delete" the number. In the technical support of the portal, she was told that if you click the "delete" button, the number will simply cease to appear in her personal account. About this, the number itself will continue to be active.

Muscovite Ekaterina Litvinova found 1732 corporate numbers registered for her in the Beeline network in the personal account of the public services portal

In response to a request from TAdviser, the press service of the Ministry of Digital Affairs recalled the recent amendments to the Law "On Communications" (No. 553-FZ).

Earlier, the Russians did not receive information about whether someone had issued SIM cards on them without their knowledge, the ministry said. - Now the mechanism introduced by the Ministry of Digital, allows to identify such cases. If a citizen received a notification to his personal account at Gosuslug that SIM cards were registered with him without his consent, it is necessary to inform the telecom operator and Roskomnadzor about this

Minitzfra also added that for more reliable protection of the account on "State Services" it is recommended to use two-factor authentication.

At the time of publication, Roskomnadzor did not answer TAdviser questions. It was not possible to contact Promelektromontazh: its contact information is not publicly available.

Theoretically, it makes sense to contact the police to initiate criminal cases under articles 137 ("Violation of privacy") and 138 (Violation of the secrecy of correspondence ") of the Criminal Code, but in practice, law enforcement agencies are unlikely to deal with this issue, says Galushko. - It is more realistic to contact Roskomnadzor to initiate an administrative case on the fact of processing personal data in cases not provided for by law

It should be noted that the topic of fraud in the registration of corporate mobile numbers in recent years has been of concern to lawmakers who have made the corresponding changes to the Law "On Communications" several times. So, in 2017, mobile operators were obliged to check the relevance of information about their subscribers. In the event of a data mismatch, the operator shall suspend the provision of services.

At the end of 2020, the Law "On Communications" was amended, according to which corporate subscribers will have to enter data on individuals - end users of their numbers in the ESIA (Unified Identification and Authentication System). The telecom operator, before the start of the services, through the ESIA and SMEV (Interagency Electronic Interaction System) must verify the validity of these data. For their part, individuals - users of services - through EPSU will have to confirm the reliability of information about them. Only then will it be possible to start providing services.

In the case of Ekaterina Litvina, it is clear that this mechanism has worked: a list of numbers registered for it appeared in her personal account at Gosuslug. However, she also had to consent to the registration of these numbers in her name, which did not happen. Perhaps her account was hacked by attackers who agreed for her to use these numbers.

In addition, lawmakers instructed Roskomnadzor to create an information system to monitor the compliance of telecom operators with the obligation to verify the reliability of information about subscribers. Through the system, telecom operators must provide information about their subscribers, their equipment and identification modules (SIM cards), how to confirm the information about subscribers and the results of checking the validity of these information.

Later, in the summer of 2021, additional changes were made to the Law "On Communications." Cellular operators were obliged to transmit to Roskomnadzor information about the location of the called and calling subscribers, about the facts and types of connections made by subscribers, including voice calls, text messages, etc. Mobile operators opposed these innovations, as they can negatively affect the corporate mobile market, and persons without confirmed accounts in the ESIA will not be able to use corporate cellular communications.

Author - Igor Korolev