National Information Technologies JSC (NITEC) reports an increase in fraudulent calls in which scammers impersonate employees of eGov and law enforcement agencies and inform citizens that their digital signature (DS) is about to expire.

During such calls, scammers offer to “extend” or “re-issue” the DS over the phone and ask the person to confirm the operation using a code received by SMS. It is important to understand that a single SMS code is not sufficient to re-issue a DS. To do so, the prescribed identity verification procedure must be completed, including biometric authentication.

Quite often, the initial call is merely the first stage of a fraudulent scheme designed to cause alarm and gain the victim’s trust. It may then be followed by a second call from another scammer posing as a security service employee. The caller claims that there is an alleged threat and attempts to obtain access to the person’s personal data, SMS codes, or device.

Please note that employees of eGov and the 1414 Call Centre, as well as representatives of law enforcement agencies, do not request SMS codes over the phone and will never ask you to provide your DS key or its password.

In this regard, NITEC urges citizens to observe the following security precautions:

• do not disclose SMS codes or DS data to third parties;
• do not follow instructions from unknown callers;
• do not follow suspicious links;
• do not install unfamiliar applications or grant them access to your device;
• check the validity period of your DS yourself and use official services only.

If you receive such a call, you are advised not to engage in conversation, not to disclose any confidential information to the caller, and to contact law enforcement agencies. If you have disclosed an SMS code or DS data to scammers, do not panic. Receiving an SMS code alone does not make it possible to re-issue a DS or take out a loan. Significant transactions require additional identity verification, including biometric identification.

Please remember that you can check the validity period of your DS in the eGov Mobile application under “Profile” → “My DS”, as well as on the pki.gov.kz website after signing in, under “My DS Keys” → “List of DS Keys”.