Fake payouts from the “UN”, the “Red Cross” and the “government”: how to spot them

Genuine government payments and aid from the UN, UNICEF or the Red Cross are never arranged through a link from Telegram, Viber or a social media ad, and none of these organisations asks for your CVV, PIN, a code from an SMS or messenger, or a “transfer fee”. If a “payout” comes with a link and a request for card details, a code or a payment, it is a scam. Check government payments in Diia and on websites ending in gov.ua, and international aid on the organisation's own website and hotline.

Oleksandr Suhak November 14, 2026 12 min read

How the fake payout scheme works

Every version of this scheme is built the same way. Scammers take a well-known name (the Pension Fund, the Ministry of Social Policy, the UN, UNICEF, the Red Cross, the European Union), attach it to a sensitive topic (pensions, blackouts, displacement, children, holidays) and promise a specific amount. A specific figure and a familiar logo make the message look credible. The person is then led to a website, a form or a chatbot, and that is where the theft happens.

1BaitA message, ad or post: “you have been granted aid”Known name and amount
2LinkA site or bot that looks officialAddress not on gov.ua
3DataCard number, expiry date, CVV, a code from an SMS or messengerThis is the theft
4DebitMoney taken from the card, a hijacked account, a loan in your nameNo payout

The payout ends at step 3: a genuine programme does not need your CVV, PIN or confirmation codes to send you money.

The channels are the same too: Telegram channels and bots with names like “Help from the state”, Viber and WhatsApp mailings, SMS with a short link, Facebook and Instagram ads, calls from “volunteers” or “partners of an international organisation”. Messages often come from accounts with ordinary first names and profile photos to make them feel personal.

Fake payouts that circulated in 2025-2026

Names and amounts change every season, but the storylines repeat. These are schemes that the cyber police, the Interior Ministry, the Ministry of Social Policy, the Centre for Countering Disinformation and the international organisations themselves warned about.

Fake payouts flagged by official bodies
What was promised	In whose name	What victims were asked for
“New aid for pensioners” of UAH 3,200 to 5,300 depending on region and work record (May 2026)	The Pension Fund; the Fund denied any such aid	Press a button, “confirm your region”, enter personal and bank details
“Mandatory identification of pensioners to keep your pension” (May 2026)	The Pension Fund	Follow a link and enter data on a phishing site
“Social payments, your turn has come” (April 2026)	The state, sometimes “UN representatives”	Send “+”, wait for a call and read out four digits of a code received in Viber
State or international aid because of power and heating outages (February 2026)	The state, international funds	Enter personal data and card details on a site copying an official one
“EnergoPidtrymka from the EU” (February 2026)	Ukrenergo together with the Red Cross	Fill in a form with personal data in Telegram
Cash aid and gift kits for children (January 2026)	UNICEF and its partners	Register through social media ads, pay a “registration fee” or “transfer fee”
A “special card” for the one-off UAH 6,500 payment (November 2025)	The state	Order a “card to receive the payment” and hand over card details

The last scheme is telling. A one-off payment of UAH 6,500 really existed in November 2025 for categories set by the government, and the Pension Fund paid it. Scammers used real news and added a made-up step: “get a special card”. No “special” cards are needed for government payments. Government bodies also do not send links through third-party services.

What scammers do with your data

How fast you need to act depends on what exactly you entered or said.

What different data gives a scammer
What you handed over	What a scammer can do
Card number, expiry date and CVV	Pay online with your card, link it to their own wallet or service
An SMS code “to credit the payout”	Confirm a debit or transfer from your card: such codes confirm a transaction, they never bring money in
A code received in Viber, Telegram or WhatsApp	Log into your messenger, send your friends requests to “lend some money until tonight” and new fake “payouts”
Online banking login and password, or a BankID sign-in	Transfer money, take out a loan in the banking app
Photos of your passport, tax number, phone number	Take out an online loan in your name, use the data in other schemes
A “fee”, “insurance payment” or “delivery charge”	Simply take the money; after the first “fee” a second one usually follows

How government payments really work

State aid in Ukraine is arranged through a few official channels: the Diia app and portal, the Pension Fund web portal, social protection offices and administrative service centres (TsNAP). The government and ministries announce new programmes on their websites, whose addresses end in gov.ua. The Interior Ministry advises checking any “new payment” there.

Money goes to your account: the card you named in your application, an account opened for payments, or a Diia.Card if the programme provides for it. All that is needed is the account details, meaning a card number or IBAN.
Applications are filed in Diia, on the agency's portal or in person. No government programme is arranged through a Telegram bot or a form from an ad.
There are no “fees”, “registration charges” or “insurance contributions” for applying for state aid.
You do not need to “confirm” your pension through a link to stop it being suspended. If the Pension Fund really needs to identify you, the procedure is published on the Fund's website and done through official services or in person.

Which state payments really exist for families with children and how to apply is covered in our guide to child benefits.

How genuine aid from international organisations works

International organisations do provide cash aid in Ukraine, which is exactly why so many fakes use their names. This is how the organisations themselves describe their rules.

What international organisations say about their aid
Organisation	What it states
UNHCR	There is no online registration for cash assistance. A CVV code is not needed and registration staff must not ask for it. All services, including cash assistance, are free of charge. Hotline 0800 307 711.
UNICEF	Does not register people for aid programmes or hand out humanitarian kits via social networks or messengers. Urges people never to share their CVV, passwords or secret word and not to send a “registration fee” or “transfer fee” to private cards. Hotline of the Spilno programme 0 800 600 017 (free, Mon-Fri 8:00-18:00).
United Nations	Charges no fee at any stage of humanitarian assistance and never asks for a CVV. UN organisations may ask for bank details in order to transfer money.
Red Cross	On “EnergoPidtrymka from the EU”: the organisation published no such announcements, does not register anyone for this “aid” and informs people only through its official channels.

This gives a simple dividing line. A genuine programme may ask for your personal details and account number to check your eligibility and send the money. It never asks for codes, CVV, PIN, passwords or money. If any of these appears in a form, do not fill it in.

A two-minute check: 7 questions

If the answer to any of these is “yes”, you are looking at a scam, or at least at a very risky situation.

You heard about the payout from a message, ad or post, and it is not on the agency's or organisation's website?
The link does not lead to gov.ua (for state payments) or to the organisation's official site? Scam addresses often look like real ones with one extra letter or hyphen.
You are asked for the CVV, expiry date, PIN, a password or a code from an SMS or messenger?
You are asked to pay: a fee, insurance, “account confirmation”, delivery of a kit?
You are rushed: “2 hours left”, “limited places”, “or your pension will be stopped”?
The amount suspiciously depends on your region or work record, and the “calculation” only needs a button press?
A friend forwarded the message, but cannot explain where it came from or whether they received any money?

If you have already entered data or shared a code

Act within minutes: the faster you move, the better the chance of stopping a debit.

Card. Block it in the banking app or via the phone number on the card, report the fraud to the bank and ask it to dispute the transactions. Reissue the card if you entered the CVV.
Online banking and BankID. Change the password, check for new devices and transactions, tell the bank if you signed in through a phishing site.
Messenger. If you shared a code from Viber, Telegram or WhatsApp: end all unknown sessions in the settings, turn on two-step verification with a password and warn people close to you that money requests in your name may come from scammers.
Documents. If you sent photos of your passport or tax number, check whether a loan has been taken out in your name, and keep checking for a few months. How to do it for free is described in our article on a loan taken in your name.
Police. File a report with the cyber police at ticket.cyberpolice.gov.ua or at the nearest police station; in an emergency call 112. Keep screenshots of the messages, the site address, the channel name, phone numbers and the account statement.

Whether the bank must refund stolen money, who has to prove your fault and how to challenge a refusal is covered in “Fraudsters took money from my card: what to do”. If the “payout” story also involved a call in the bank's name, learn the signs of a fake bank security service: the schemes are often combined.

How to protect older relatives

Fake “pension supplements” and “aid for pensioners” target older people who trust the Pension Fund's name and check website addresses less often. A few agreements remove most of the risk:

no “payout” forms from messenger links: forward the message to you first;
never read out codes from SMS or messengers to anyone, even a “Fund employee” or a “volunteer”;
do not use the pension card for online shopping and do not keep a credit limit on it;
turn on notifications for all transactions and, where possible, limits on online payments in the banking app.

Frequently asked questions

Are there genuine payouts from the UN or the Red Cross?

Yes, international organisations in Ukraine provide cash aid to certain groups of people. But selection and registration go through their official programmes, partners and hotlines. UNHCR states plainly that there is no online registration for cash assistance, and UNICEF that it does not register people through social networks or messengers. A post or ad with a “leave your card details” form has nothing to do with genuine programmes.

They ask for my card number to send money. Is that already a scam?

A card number or IBAN is genuinely needed to transfer money, and a real programme may ask for it. The danger is when the number comes with a request for the expiry date, CVV, PIN, an SMS code or a password, or when the form was opened from a link in a message. It is also safer to give the number of a separate card with a small balance.

The message came from someone I know. Can I trust it?

No, unless that person received this payment themselves and knows where the message came from. Often their account has already been hijacked and the mailing goes out without their knowledge. Call them on a number you know and ask.

I only clicked the link and entered nothing. What should I do?

If you entered no data, installed no files and shared no codes, most likely nothing happened. Close the page, do not open downloaded files, scan your phone with an antivirus and watch your card transactions for a few days. If you installed an app from the site, delete it and change your banking and email passwords.

Where do I report a fake site or channel?

To the cyber police via ticket.cyberpolice.gov.ua (cyber police hotline 0800 50 51 70). If an international organisation's name was used, tell its hotline too. You can also report the channel or page through the social network or messenger itself.

In short

State payments are arranged in Diia, on agency portals, at social protection offices and TsNAP, and announced on gov.ua sites. Never through Telegram bots or ads.
UNHCR has no online registration for cash assistance, UNICEF does not register people via social networks or messengers, and the UN charges no fee for aid.
To receive money, only a card number or IBAN is needed. Only scammers ask for a CVV, PIN, SMS or messenger codes, passwords or “fees”.
A known name, a specific amount and real news behind the story do not guarantee anything: scammers use all of them on purpose.
If you have already handed over data: block the card, secure your messenger and banking, check for loans in your name, report to the cyber police.

Sources

This article is for information only and is not financial or investment advice. Check current terms with your bank or financial institution before making decisions.

Spotted a mistake or an outdated figure? Let us know and we will check it against the primary source and fix it.