In Moscow, fraudsters swindled 450 million rubles from a woman — this is the largest sum stolen from a single victim by cybercriminals in the capital. The record case was reported by Anton Kononenko, head of the cybercrime department of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for Moscow.
Our counteraction has been carried out since 2019. During this time, there have been different figures. The largest sums amount to several hundred million rubles. The record is 450 million rubles.
The scale of such thefts shows how serious financial losses can accompany fraud using digital communication channels. Attackers may try to seize not only money in bank accounts, but also savings that a person transfers under the influence of convincing instructions. Therefore, it is especially important to independently verify any requests to transfer funds, even if the interlocutor claims to be a bank employee or a government agency.
Multi-stage fraud schemes pose a particular danger, in which criminals consistently gain a person's trust, impersonate bank employees or law enforcement agencies, and convince them to transfer money themselves. In such cases, attackers use not only digital communication tools, but also psychological pressure: they rush decision-making, threaten with loss of savings, or promise to help protect funds. Transferring money to a so-called safe account is a common sign of a fraudulent scheme.