The Central Bank has confirmed the spread of a fraudulent scheme involving the transfer of cash to a courier

The Bank of Russia has confirmed to Izvestia that criminals have started stealing money from citizens more often with the help of "cash collectors" - fake couriers. This happened after the introduction in July 2024 of the Central Bank's new requirements to control suspicious transfers, which made it more difficult to conduct dubious transactions.

"Usually, fraudsters call their victim, introduce themselves as employees of the Bank of Russia and inform them that there is a massive attack on a person's bank accounts, which can lead to the theft of money. To secure savings, the attackers offer to use the free service of collectors. They, according to the version of fraudsters, will be able to pick up cash and transport it to another bank for temporary storage allegedly on a "special account", which is protected from fraudulent attacks", - explained in the regulator.

In accordance with the new requirements of the Central Bank, 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 for two days to suspend transfers to accounts from a special base of the Central Bank - it is assumed that during this time a person can come to his senses. In addition, banks are now obliged to disable access to remote service to customers who are engaged in withdrawal and cash-out of stolen money.

Only on the first day of the law was blocked access to about 30 thousand electronic means of payment (cards, online banking) of intruders, said the Central Bank. According to preliminary monitoring of systemically important credit organizations, on average they suspend about 20,000 transfers daily to accounts with suspicious details, which are contained in the database of the Bank of Russia.

"When you receive such a call, do not panic, do not respond to such calls or messages, do not transfer money to unknown persons under any pretext," the Central Bank advises.

Read more in the exclusive material "Izvestia":

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