They have been waiting for self-prohibition for years – Newspaper Kommersant No. 19 (7464) dated 02/02/2023

The week is far from over, and it has already turned out to be rich in data leaks. On Monday, there was a drain at Atol (see Kommersant on February 1). On Tuesday, information appeared about the hacking of Best2Pay, which could affect the data of 1 million customers of 185 Russian banks. In 2022, there were about 150 major leaks, Interfax reported, citing Roskomnadzor.

Having received the personal data of citizens, scammers use social engineering methods to steal not only the money that you have, but also those that you don’t have – by persuading you to take a loan. According to the Central Bank, in the third quarter of 2022, almost 4 billion rubles were stolen by fraudsters, of which 2.7 billion rubles were stolen. accounted for remote banking services for individuals. And three-quarters of these funds were stolen with the help of social engineering, and only 1% managed to return.

This is not to say that the authorities are not trying to fight – from every iron there are warnings not to transfer data by phone, blacklists are being drawn up, calls are being made to complicate the life of scammers. In mid-January, the Supreme Court sent for a new trial the case of a client of one of the banks, whom the scammers persuaded to open the code from SMS and use it to apply for a loan, which was immediately stolen (see “Kommersant” dated January 20). The victim had a hope that the stolen loan would not have to be returned to the bank, although experts doubt success.

Meanwhile, there is a solution that can at least partially, but significantly reduce the risks in this part. Back in mid-2022, the Central Bank proposed to introduce a self-prohibition on the issuance of loans (see Kommersant of June 15, 2022), fixing this in the credit history. Banks and MFIs will need to check for such self-limitation before issuing loans. If, despite the prohibition, a credit or loan agreement is concluded, the creditor will not be able to demand the performance of obligations. The Central Bank says that the bill has passed interagency coordination, received support and is preparing to be submitted to the State Duma.

The mechanism seems to work, at least against fraudulent loans, especially if the way to remove the ban is complex enough that criminals cannot bypass it with one click. Another question is that in this configuration it has already been discussed for more than six months, and it is not known how long it will walk around the State Duma. But it will still be necessary to develop normative acts and put them into practice. And it is unlikely that at this time it is worth waiting for a decrease in the number of victims.

Not that anyone actively opposes the introduction of the scheme – in any case, I could not find traces of this. But there are no people on the market who are interested in the mechanism, except for citizens. That is, the initiative is moving forward in a natural way, without active support. And that means slow.