Fake summons, "interrogations" and extortion: scammers are widely posing as the SBU

Security Service of Ukraine warns citizens about an increase in the number of fraud schemes in which perpetrators pose as employees of the SBU and other law enforcement agencies. The SBU press service reported this on May 15, 2026, the SBU said.

According to the service, scammers present themselves as officials of the SBU or other state bodies to intimidate people and seize their funds. Initially, fraudsters contact a person and begin to pressure them with fabricated criminal cases. They may claim that the citizen is allegedly suspected of treason, financing Russia (RF), or purchasing prohibited goods. To increase psychological pressure, perpetrators often send a messenger a fake summons-call to an interrogation. After that they offer to “resolve the matter” and supposedly avoid punishment. In most cases, the fraudsters demand that money be transferred or handed over to them “for verification” or “to avoid criminal liability”.

The Security Service of Ukraine emphasizes that such actions are fraud, and citizens need to be vigilant and not give in to threats. The SBU advises in such situations to record the details of the persons who made contact:

• write down the phone number from which the call came;
• save screenshots of the messages;
• do not delete correspondence in messengers;
• do not rush to respond to demands for money.

Ukrainians are separately urged not to share confidential bank card details and not to make urgent money transfers at the request of unknown persons. The SBU also asks to verify all information only through official sources: the Security Service website and verified pages of state bodies on social networks.

If a person becomes the object of such extortion or receives a suspicious message from someone claiming to be an employee of the SBU, they should immediately contact:

• the hotline at 1516;
• by email to callcenter@ssu.gov.ua;
• by email to sbu_cu@ssu.gov.ua;
• via the chat-bot “Spali FSBshnyka”: t.me/spaly_fsb_bot.

The SBU additionally emphasized that the Security Service operates exclusively within the framework of current Ukrainian legislation and for the safety of citizens.

“We draw attention to the fact that the SBU operates exclusively within the framework of current Ukrainian legislation and for the safety of every Ukrainian,” – the SBU emphasized.

Previously we reported:

• Posing as the SBU in Kyiv, scammers cheated pensioners out of nearly UAH 9 million
• Kept her savings and lost 175,000: in Mykolaiv a woman fell victim to phone scammers
• Scammers duped residents of the Mykolaiv region out of over UAH 600,000
• They hacked 610,000 accounts and earned millions: hackers were taken into custody

• A financial pyramid scheme of over UAH 20 million was uncovered in Kyiv