They decided to protect elderly Russians from scammers with the help of a “second hand”

The Central Bank of the Russian Federation proposes to legislate the introduction of a “second hand” mechanism by banks to protect clients from vulnerable segments of the population – especially the elderly – from fraudsters. This was stated by the Chairman of the Bank of Russia, Elvira Nabiullina, presenting the regulator’s report for 2023 to the State Duma. If the authorities support this initiative, then clients can appoint a trusted person who will have control over the banking transactions of an elderly person or disabled person and the ability to block any transfer that seems suspicious to him. The pros and cons of this practice were assessed for MK by experts – lawyers and financiers.

According to the capital’s prosecutor’s office, in Moscow alone in 2023, more than 10 thousand pensioners suffered from remote fraud and theft, including through telephone conversations. The Ministry of Internal Affairs has not yet provided the number of similar victims throughout Russia, but it can be assumed that we are talking about hundreds of thousands of people.

These sad statistics will stop growing if a “second hand” mechanism is introduced for vulnerable categories of citizens, the Bank of Russia is confident. It lies in the fact that a bank client can appoint a trustee who will have the right to control the financial transactions of the ward and the ability to block any of his transfers. According to the recommendation, banks should provide such a mechanism to clients belonging to the category of people with disabilities or to a group of citizens with limited mobility, as well as the elderly. “We recommended this service to banks, but we believe that it would be correct to enshrine it in law,” Nabiullina said, speaking in the State Duma on April 10. She added that so far the regulator has not been able to reach a turning point in the fight against scammers.

Experts differ in their assessment of this initiative, pointing to the risks that other rights of citizens may be violated when protecting against fraudsters. “If this norm is introduced as the right of an elderly person, and not as his responsibility, then there are no violations of rights here,” says Diana Sork, a lawyer at the International Confederation of Consumer Societies (ConfoP). – But, of course, much in each specific situation will depend on the relationship between the elderly and his confidant. However, if the trustee does not receive the right to manage the account and can only control the pensioner’s expenses, then, apart from the risk of abuse of power, I do not see any other risks.”

The initiative to introduce a “second hand” service as mandatory for all banks has a good goal, but this project has a number of pitfalls. According to the associate professor of the department of global financial markets and fintech of the Russian Economic University. Plekhanov Tatyana Belyanchikova, the decision to connect the described service should definitely remain with the owner of the funds. The authorized person must also be a client of the bank so that the credit institution has his personal data.

It seems correct to use this service starting from a certain amount (for example, over 50 thousand rubles daily), so that younger relatives cannot control absolutely all transfers of the owner of funds – and in any case cannot make such transfers on their own. In this case, the pensioner will be free in his small transactions. Taking this into account, the approval of transactions must be extended not only to money transfers, but also to cash withdrawals, as well as to payments for services of companies included in the lists of suspicious ones. True, this will seriously increase the costs of banks for providing this service. Perhaps it needs to be made available not only to people of retirement age, because gullible people can be young, and even very young, Belyanchikova believes.

“This is a very dubious initiative,” Polina Gusyatnikova, senior managing partner of the law firm PG Partners, continues the conversation. — On the one hand, truly trusted persons can prevent scammers from deceiving pensioners. It is this group that most often becomes victims of scammers due to excessive gullibility. But on the other hand, no one can exclude abuse by the same trusted persons, and then elderly people will no longer have to be protected from third-party scammers, but from their loved ones acting as trusted representatives.” According to the current legislation, if a person is not deprived of legal capacity, no one can control his actions, so it is completely unclear how this issue will be worked out at the legal level.

“It seems to me that using artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to analyze and block financial transactions will be much more effective,” the lawyer suggested. — Because AI can only analyze and track dynamics, identifying non-standard, atypical actions. AI has no intention, no emotions, no profit, so this approach would be more correct.”

According to civil lawyer Alla Georgieva, the law will be useful to that category of citizens who have close people who can be entrusted with a responsible matter – confirming the transfer of money. It is important here that the assistant person is truly interested in preserving the property rights of the owner of the funds. In these cases, the initiative will truly protect older Russians. If this option is formal or “trusted persons” formally implement it, there will be no result, even if you appoint not one, but several sub-assistants.

At the same time, the law will limit the property rights of older citizens to the maximum: owners will not be able to use their own money. In addition, a pensioner or disabled person can now independently carry out an online transaction at any time of the day, and the bill will obviously force another person to also be in touch 24/7, which is not always convenient for everyone. The question also arises about the liability of “trusted persons” in the event that a fraudulent operation was nevertheless committed. “The risk is that another person will be involved in the scam. In these cases, trusted persons may also come under suspicion and, it turns out, must bear appropriate responsibility.”

In general, the initiative not only contains a positive effect, but also carries certain risks, and therefore requires more clearly defined rights and obligations of the parties, MK’s interlocutors agreed.