The authorities have taken the fight against telephone scammers seriously: effective laws are being prepared

Most fraudulent activities against Russians begin with a call to a mobile phone. The number of such “appeals” from fake police officers and banks is at least 20 million per day. As a result of fraud, victims give scammers about 44 million rubles a day, or 15.8 billion a year. One of the most pressing problems of our time and ways to solve it were discussed by experts at a hearing in the Public Chamber of Russia.

“Every call is a crime, an attack on the life and property of Russians,” says member of the security commission, lawyer Vladimir Vinnitsky. – In no other country, except Russia, has telephone fraud become so widespread. The deplorable situation was also led to by the inaction of law enforcement agencies. Instead of stopping crimes, police produce videos on how to protect yourself from scammers. But this is anomalous! This kind of connivance can no longer continue.

The success of criminals is explained not only by the psychological impact on subscribers, but also by good awareness. As a rule, during the call, scammers call the first name, last name, patronymic, year of birth and other personal information of the potential victim. Since the beginning of 2024 alone, Roskomnadzor has recorded the leak of 500 million records about Russians – it turns out that the attackers know almost everything about us.

It’s quite easy to buy databases; they cost pennies, continues Vladimir Vinnitsky. A thousand telephone numbers of people living near a specific metro station are sold for 600 rubles. In addition, leaks come from the social network VKontakte, from large purchase and sale services, from telephone operators, taxi services, food delivery, ticket ordering and other sources, open and not so open. “There are known cases when law enforcement officials participated in the dissemination of personal data of Russians,” says the lawyer.

The government has developed several amendments to the Code of Administrative Offenses to tighten penalties for personal data leaks. If the bill is adopted, the fine for individuals will be from 800 thousand to 2 million, for legal entities – from 3 to 15 million rubles. But this measure will be effective only if applied regularly, and not one-time actions, emphasizes Vladimir Vinnitsky.

For a long time, scammers from neighboring countries (Ukraine, Poland, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Belarus) used spoof numbers – as if they were calling from Russia. This practice is gradually disappearing, since from the end of 2022 telephone operators began to use the Antifraud system, which blocks dubious calls. By February 28, 2024, all mobile companies must connect to it.

According to the Ministry of Digital Development, in 2023 it was possible to block 575 thousand numbers from which scammers called. Of these, 511 thousand were disguised as mobile phones, 59 thousand as landline numbers, 5 thousand as numbers with the code 8-800.

However, the scammers seem to have learned about Antifraud before the Russians and quickly switched to calling via instant messengers (WhatsApp, Viber, Telegram). As a result, their “earnings” did not decrease, but even increased. In 2023, criminals conducted 1.17 million fraudulent transactions with Russian citizens (33% more than in 2022) in the amount of 15.8 billion rubles (plus 11.5%), Bank of Russia representative Andrei Vybornov cites figures.

“Behind every transaction there is a human life, a human destiny,” says Andrei Vybornov. “And if earlier scammers simply stole money from cards, now they are increasingly forcing victims to take out loans and send these funds to them, which is even more dangerous. People fall into severe bondage. Therefore, the task of this year is to combat credit fraud.

In July, a law comes into force establishing a so-called cooling-off period of two days. If a client makes a transfer in the direction of an attacker and the bank has a clear understanding that the person is under psychological influence, the bank will be obliged to slow down the transfer of this money for two days. It is assumed that during this time the client will come to his senses and realize that he is being scammed. This procedure will apply not only to transfers, but also to issuing large loans.

Another legislative restriction, which is currently being worked out and will be adopted in the second half of the year, is a limitation on the number of bank cards issued to one individual. As you know, scammers from neighboring countries actively use in their frauds the so-called drops – Russians, to whose cards the victims initially transfer money.

“It happens that a drop has several thousand bank cards open,” says Andrey Vybornov. – After the adoption of the law, banks will be required to block new cards for such clients. The ability to withdraw funds for them will be severely limited: drops will not be able to manage money remotely, but only in a bank branch. Such restrictions will make life as difficult as possible for drops, and therefore for scammers.

Central Bank specialists have compiled a portrait of a victim of telephone scams. As a rule, this is a working woman from 25 to 44 years old with secondary education and an average income level, living in the city. Only every third victim contacts the bank regarding the theft of money, because people do not believe in the success of the case. Alas, their pessimism is justified: in 2022, only 4.4% of defrauded clients were returned money for a total of 618 million rubles, in 2023 – 8.7% (1.38 billion).

Some good news: as a Bank of Russia survey showed, 9 out of 10 potential victims (88%) during a conversation with scammers realized that they were not calling them with good intentions, and did not fall for the scam.