In 2024, Russians faced a surge in activity from telephone scammers. According to Sberbank specialists, in February-March, about 20 million attempts to call Russian citizens per day were recorded. Trusting citizens who fell victim to cunning schemes lost millions of rubles, and according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, in some cases, the amount reaches hundreds of millions of rubles.
Statistics on the amount of damage for each victim are not provided. In this regard, it is difficult to identify the largest amount. As an example, this year, the damage from theft committed using information and communication technologies against an individual amounted to about 180 million rubles.
These funds were transferred to accounts indicated by fraudsters, without the involvement of couriers. Moreover, to extract large sums, fraudsters have begun to use multi-stage schemes more often. The Ministry of Internal Affairs noted that they now force victims not only to transfer all the money available in their accounts but also to sell movable and immovable property, and take out loans. The process of transactions, loan applications is carefully supervised by them.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs drew attention to the fact that if earlier, when committing crimes, fraudsters prioritized the number of calls made and the theft of funds actually available to the victims, now criminals carefully coordinate the victims, involving them in the sale of movable and immovable property, as well as in obtaining loans from microfinance organizations.
A large international criminal group that operated in this direction in Belarus, Russia, Israel, and Kyrgyzstan was neutralized in July, but it is known that up to 90% of fraudulent calls come from Ukraine. At the same time, the attackers use spoofed numbers that hide their location from victims.
During the year-end direct line, President Vladimir Putin was even asked whether it was planned to include fraudulent call centers in Ukraine on the list of priority targets for weapons due to their harmfulness. The Russian President gave a negative answer. At the same time, he announced tough measures for fraudsters, their accomplices, and banks that do not carefully check applications for million-dollar loans.
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