Money transportation: fraudsters have started convincing Russians to hand over cash to couriers

Attackers have found a way to circumvent banks' restrictions on blocking suspicious transfers. Under the pretext that the funds need to be "secured", Russians are persuaded to withdraw them from their cards and hand the cash over to couriers. The money is then converted into cryptocurrency and sent to the organizers of the fraudulent scheme. This method of theft is now becoming dominant. It has become relevant because in July, the Central Bank's new requirements for controlling transfers came into force. How to counteract this scheme - in the material "Izvestia".

Why do fraudsters ask to hand over cash to a courier?

Fraudsters are increasingly using a variant of the "safe account" deception scheme, in which victims are persuaded to hand over cash to couriers, Ashot Oganesyan, founder of the DLBI vulnerability and data leakage intelligence service, told Izvestia. At first, the attackers, as before, convince the potential victim that the funds are in danger. However, then instead of encouraging the person to transfer the money to a "safe account," they ask to withdraw it through an ATM and give it to a courier.

- Couriers are recruited on Telegram channels or the darknet to participate in the theft of funds, and their commission is 5-10% of the amount stolen. Sometimes they present fake documents of law enforcement officers, but most often they name a certain password, which is justified by the "secrecy" of the operation," the expert said.

Photo: IZVESTIA/Sergey Lantyukhov

According to him, then the couriers convert the funds into cryptocurrency through special exchangers and transfer them to the organizers of the fraudulent scheme.

The only disadvantage of such a scheme for criminals is that the couriers are practically disposable, as in most cases the police detects and detains them after the first episode thanks to the widespread video control and facial recognition system, said Ashot Oganesyan. However, it is still not possible to return the money in such a situation.

Thescheme with couriers began to spread actively 1.5-2 months ago and quickly became dominant, he emphasized. According to his data, it already accounts for about 80% of thefts on the model with the "need to secure funds. It allows bypassing almost all the systems of ford control previously created by the Central Bank and banks, he noted.

The last large-scale tightening of such checks was in July 2024 - then the new requirements of the Bank of Russia came into force. According to them, credit organizations are obliged to return stolen money if they have not implemented a number of measures to prevent suspicious transactions. In particular, market players must suspend transfers to accounts from a special database of the Central Bank for two days - it is assumed that during this time a person may come to his senses. In addition, banks are now obliged to disable access to remote services to customers who are engaged in withdrawal and cash-out of stolen money.

Photo: Izvestia/Pavel Volkov

The Bank of Russia confirmed this information to Izvestia: indeed, after the introduction of new measures, criminals began to steal money from citizens more often with the help of "collectors" - fake couriers. According to the version of fraudsters, they will be able to pick up cash and transport it to another bank for temporary storage allegedly on a "special account" that is protected from attacks.

How to protect yourself from phone scammers

Only on the first day of the new rules were blocked access to about 30 thousand electronic means of payment (cards, online banking) of intruders, said "Izvestia" in the Central Bank. According to the preliminary monitoring of systemically important credit organizations, on average banks daily suspend about 20 thousand transfers to accounts with suspicious details, which are contained in the regulator's database.

VTB told Izvestia that it has launched a system of dropper monitoring. Droppers are people whose accounts are used by attackers to "cover their tracks". In 2024, the system allowed to detain on such accounts more than 1.1 billion rubles, specified in the financial organization.

Photo: IZVESTIA/Sergey Lantyukhov

Changes in legislation, as well as constant work of banks and the regulator to counteract fraudsters, informing citizens - all this has made it possible to combat attackers more effectively, said the bank Novikom, without specifying details.

After the changes came into force, since July, the "life" of the card dropper reduced on average from a couple of weeks to two days, estimated the head of the project of the "People's Front" "For the rights of borrowers", coordinator of the platform "Moshelovka" Evgenia Lazareva.

- That is why criminals have become more active in attracting couriers rather than droppers as a channel for transferring large sums of money. They are maximally suitable for this, as they interrupt the chain of transactions within the banking circuit. This reduces the chances of preventing a crime," she said.

A fraudulent scheme in which social engineers do not ask to transfer money to a "safe account", but send a courier for cash, has existed for quite a long time, but it was mostly applied point-by-point, for example, for large loans, said Denis Kalemberg, CEO of SafeTech. However, he assumes that the trend will intensify, primarily due to innovations in the banking market, which motivate players to more actively implement anti-fraud systems.

Photo: Izvestia/Pavel Volkov

- In addition, instead of SMS codes and push notifications to confirm transactions, credit organizations are now more and more actively implementing payment confirmation solutions, in which the bank client can see on the smartphone screen to whom exactly he is transferring money. Therefore, he will not confuse the card of an unidentified person with a "safe account" in the Central Bank," the expert added.

There is hardly a simple and effective recipe for combating the use of couriers in fraudulent chains, fears Evgenia Lazareva. It happens that delivery companies simply fulfill orders in quite legitimate services. When law enforcers find couriers, they are usually willing to cooperate with the investigation, the expert added.

- Therefore, preventive work in risk groups, continuation of information campaign to expose fraudulent legends and schemes makes sense, - emphasized Evgenia Lazareva.

Clients should be vigilant, VTB reminded: never follow instructions given by strangers over the phone or in messengers, including on withdrawing and transferring funds, buying shares, installing any applications on a computer or cell phone.