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- With foreign participation: Central Bank reveals new schemes of false financiers' work
With foreign participation: Central Bank reveals new schemes of false financiers' work
Swindlers have devised new schemes to swindle money from citizens. Now they cover themselves with "licenses obtained from foreign regulators". And they even provide a link to the alleged websites of regulatory bodies where the authorization documents are published. Another new trick is to attract clients through Telegram channels for trust management of cryptocurrencies with the conclusion of a contract. Illegals provide all possible "supporting documents", including real registration numbers of individual entrepreneurs authorized to engage in financial activities. The Central Bank exclusively told Izvestia about the new schemes and how to protect oneself.
How illegals cover themselves with "foreign participation"
Last year, the number of illegal companies, projects, IEs, etc. increased 1.6 times compared to 2023, the Bank of Russia reported last week. One of the reasons for the increase in the number of pseudo-financiers is the constant updating of fraudulent schemes.
The Central Bank told Izvestia that illegal forex dealers and brokers have begun to cover themselves with foreign regulators who allegedly supervise their activities. At the same time, specific bodies are mentioned: for example, the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA), the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) and so on. An important event last year gave credibility to this scheme: the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved the first ETF (mutual fund) on Bitcoin, which opened access to the cryptocurrency to a wide range of investors.
In addition, many illegals indicate the numbers of licenses allegedly issued to their companies, as well as place active links to the regulator's page with these permits. However, when a person goes to the duplicate sites of foreign regulators, fake pages with information from the register of issued licenses.
- Such a clone has an identical visual design and an address similar to the real one. In addition, when you go to any of the sections of the fake site, you are redirected to the genuine official portal of the regulator, - said the Central Bank.
In order not to fall for the illegals, the Central Bank recommends to visit the website of a foreign regulator independently, and not through a link from fraudsters. Then you can make sure for sure whether the company is in the register or not. But, as the Central Bank reminded, in case of problems with a foreign company, it will be necessary to apply for protection to the regulator with whose license it operates.
According to the law on the securities market on the territory of the Russian Federation have the right to work and offer financial services to Russian citizens only companies that have a license of the Bank of Russia or they are included in the relevant registers of the regulator.
Another variation of the same scheme is when the organizers of Internet projects claim to be partners or intermediaries of legal foreign companies. As proof, they provide links on their resources that lead to the cards of legal companies on the websites of foreign registrars of legal entities (analogs of our USRYUL and USRIP). But in fact there is no link to a real company, it is just fraud, the Central Bank emphasized.
Usually companies themselves report on partnership projects on their websites. In addition, it should be taken into account that most foreign companies from unfriendly countries now do not work with Russian citizens.
It is also important to remember that interaction with a foreign broker carries a super risk of account blocking and non-return of funds.
How scam artists cheat with trust management of crypto
Another new scheme, which was revealed by the Central Bank, is based on the demonstration of legality and simplicity of investment. Ljebrokers in Telegram channels began to offer trust management services for subsequent investment in crypto exchanges. A potential client is promised that by investing money for a period of 24 hours to three to four days, he can get a profit from 50 to almost 400%.
And if earlier similar offers were made on behalf of reputable investors or bloggers, now a person is lured by attributes of legality: the conclusion of a trust management agreement, and in correspondence the administrator's documents are provided - a scan of a passport, a certificate of registration of a sole proprietorship.
- Moreover, as registration data are provided OGRNIP (IP registration number) of real persons, whose activities according to OKVED code are related to the activities of exchange intermediaries and/or money intermediation. But to transfer money, details of the dropper card are provided," the Central Bank explained.
Then the administrator blocks the client and does not get in touch. Official brokers, it is important to note, never ask to transfer money to an individual's card. Also, professional participants of the securities market do not have the right to guarantee profitability.
It is necessary to assess the quality and security of information. The anonymity of the content author, impossibility to check the reliability of information about the company/project and the organizer, as well as intrusive positive reviews should be alarming. Look for additional reviews on third-party resources.
Pay attention to the wording in the posts: guarantees of profitability, unrealistic benefits, an abundance of buzzwords most often cover the lack of real business. And attracting contributions in crypto or through a transfer to a physical person immediately reveals a fraudulent scheme.
Private investors can entrust the management of their money to professionals, but all of them must have qualifications and a license of a professional participant in the securities market, said the press service of the Association for the Development of Financial Literacy (ARFG).
- Of course, they can advertise their services, including on the Internet. But for the conclusion of contracts there is a procedure provided by law: at least it is a simple written form. On paper with live signatures of the parties or in electronic form, but provided that the document with all its essential terms can be printed on paper and the requirements of 63-FZ "On electronic signature" are met, - explained in the ARFG.
Conclusion of an agreement in Telegram is not such a form, they said. Therefore, the owner of the funds is not legally protected - neither by financial, nor even by civil legislation.
Why are the builders of financial pyramids going back offline?
Schemes with cryptocurrencies in general are very popular, including among the organizers of financial pyramids. And now they have started to go offline again, which makes people more trustworthy. For example, the Central Bank told Izvestia that one of the companies, which advertised itself as a foreign cryptocurrency exchange on its website, opened several physical offices in different regions of the country.
- Its representatives held conferences, live trainings and consultations, where they taught both the first steps in this market, starting with opening a wallet, and "the basics of creating your own team of investors" to receive additional referral income. Fraudsters assured that they would soon compete with the largest cryptocurrency exchanges and taught how to make money with the help of innovative trading bots," the Central Bank said.
After a few months, payments stopped, the website and social networks of the company closed, and managers stopped contacting.
It is important to check whether the company conducts real activity, whether it has authorization documents for work. Only companies that have a license from the Bank of Russia or are included in the relevant registers of the regulator have the right to offer financial services to Russian citizens.
And if investments in a project are accepted in cryptocurrency, this should immediately alert you. Such transactions are anonymous, not regulated by law and may be aimed at illegally withdrawing funds from the country. It will be extremely difficult to recover the money, even by going to court.
There are many financial pyramids and pyramidal projects, says Alla Khrapunova, curator of the Moshelovka project. And their structure has become more diverse, so many victims complain that the same projects are closed, but after a short period of time appear on other resources while maintaining the same content and brand. While one-day sites can be quickly blocked, complex projects exist for a long time and involve more and more victims in their networks.
- The complexity of the structure requires a change in approaches to both their detection and proving that the scheme corresponds to the features of financial pyramids," the expert emphasized.
In her opinion, the search for solutions is an area of development for all participants in the process, including citizens themselves, who need to choose more carefully those to whom they entrust their money.
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