The HRC explained the need for state protection from Ukrainian fraudsters

The protection of Russian citizens from fraudsters from Ukraine should be ensured by the state, as people cannot resist criminals when they fall under their influence. This statement was made by Igor Ashmanov, a member of the Russian Presidential Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights (HRC), in an interview with TASS on Sunday, February 9.

"Experience shows that citizens fall under the influence of criminals and cannot protect themselves, and it is immoral to shift the responsibility to protect themselves to them. Education, digital literacy do not work here. This means that people must be protected by the state," he emphasized.

According to him, about 300 thousand rubles were stolen from the citizens of the Russian Federation by phone fraud during 2024, and almost all calls came from Ukraine, most of all from Kharkov and Kiev.

Ashmanov emphasized that not only people of retirement age, poorly versed in technology, are at risk of becoming victims of fraudsters. Anyone can fall for skillful manipulations. As Ashmanov noted, among the victims of fraudsters there are even representatives of information security.

According to the agency's interlocutor, he proposed a number of measures to counteract phone scammers on February 10 at the meeting of Russian President Vladimir Putin with representatives of the HRC.

"First, stopping calls from Ukraine. This should be stopped by simply blocking calls from there at the entrance both by Internet telephony and regular telephone communication, the second - it is necessary to prohibit number substitution, and the third - to introduce a fixed list of numbers of all state organizations and all major credit organizations, delivery companies and so on, so that from any other numbers to call citizens to these organizations was not allowed," he said.

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Earlier, on December 19 last year, Putin said during the "Results of the Year" that it is not worth spending shells on fraudulent call centers in Ukraine and put them on the list of priority targets. According to him, decisions should be made to fight fraudsters inside Russia, and this should be done by responsible agencies, such as the Russian Central Bank (CB), the government and the country's internal affairs agencies.

Before that, on December 10, Putin said that phone fraud has been elevated to the rank of Kiev's state policy. Attackers often act under the control of state bodies and structures. The president added that he would draw the attention of the Prosecutor-General's Office to the problem of Ukrainian fraudsters and suggest that proposals to combat them be considered.