Squabbling call: why Russia has restricted calls in messengers

Blocking calls via Telegram and WhatsApp (part of Meta, the organization is recognized as extremist and banned in the Russian Federation) will solve problems with the activity of scammers in these messengers, experts interviewed by Izvestia believe. Roskomnadzor announced that a significant part of such calls are made precisely in the interests of intruders and on August 13 partially blocked access to the voice services Telegram and WhatsApp. Izvestia has seen that such restrictions are not in vain — recently, attacks by criminals through these resources have become noticeably more frequent.

Why limit calls via foreign messengers

"Our guys will come to your house, you will be responsible for everything," a correspondent of Izvestia recently received such a message on WhatsApp, indicating his exact address. The authors of the message did not specify to whom and for what they would have to answer. They then called back via WhatsApp, but could not properly explain the essence of the "claim", and after hearing a threat to contact the police, they interrupted the conversation.

It looks like there will be fewer such incidents now. On August 13, Roskomnadzor partially restricted the ability to make calls via the foreign messengers Telegram and WhatsApp. This was done to counter criminals, the ministry said in a statement.

They noted that according to law enforcement agencies and based on numerous appeals from citizens, foreign messengers have become "the main voice services used to deceive and extort money, involve Russian citizens in sabotage and terrorist activities."

The owners of messengers were repeatedly asked to take measures to counter such cases, but they were ignored, the press service of Roskomnadzor noted.

"We inform you that in order to counteract criminals, in accordance with the materials of law enforcement agencies, measures are being taken to partially restrict calls in these foreign messengers. No other restrictions are imposed on their functionality," the message says.

According to Mediascope, WhatsApp's monthly reach in the audience over the age of 12 by the end of July 2025 is 97.6 million people, Telegram — 90.9 million.

Izvestia sent requests to the offices of Telegram and Meta with a request to comment on the situation.

Telegram noted in its message to the media that it is fighting the malicious use of its platform, including calls for sabotage, violence and fraud.

"Moderators using special AI tools actively monitor public sections of the platform and receive complaints in order to remove millions of malicious messages every day. In addition, Telegram was the first to introduce detailed privacy settings for calls so that each user could independently determine who to receive calls from or turn them off completely," the service's press service said.

How call blocking will help in the fight against terrorism and fraud

The fight against calls from criminals is being conducted consistently. Since 2024, the Antifraud system has been operating, which ensures that calls with number substitution are blocked in the traditional telephone networks of Russian telecom operators, Roskomnadzor noted. As a result, almost all such calls have been transferred to foreign messengers, which refuse to ensure the safety of Russian users, they added.

Sergei Boyarsky, chairman of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, said he supported Roskomnadzor's decision. He recalled that 27% of Russians had already encountered attempts at telephone fraud using instant messengers. Some of them became victims, having lost more than one million rubles — credit funds or long-term savings.

"Banks and mobile operators have accumulated tremendous experience in combating such offenses and are successfully applying it, implementing their own anti-fraud systems, including those based on artificial intelligence technologies," Sergei Boyarsky wrote on social networks.

According to him, the owners of foreign messengers almost completely ignore Russian legislation and do not contact the Russian authorities, in fact, they have become accomplices of criminals. In fact, they are passively helping the Ukrainian army of call centers, numbering tens of thousands of hired employees, to rob the Russian people and destabilize Russian society, the deputy believes.

— According to Roskomnadzor, up to 40% of messenger calls are made by scammers, and 70% of such calls come from abroad. Telegram and WhatsApp ignore requests from law enforcement agencies to transfer data on terrorism and sabotage. Messengers do not localize user data in Russia, do not cooperate with the authorities, but they promptly respond to requests from foreign intelligence agencies," Igor Bederov, founder of Internet Search, an expert on the SafeNet NTI market, told Izvestia.

According to him, after blocking fraudulent calls on traditional networks (starting in 2024), criminals have massively switched to instant messengers, where there are no traffic analysis tools.

Anton Nemkin, a member of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy and federal coordinator of the Digital Russia party project, told Izvestia that according to the Interior Ministry, 300-400 crimes are committed per week using Telegram and WhatsApp. For comparison, no crimes have been recorded using the Russian messenger MAX.

— Partial restriction of voice calls on WhatsApp and other foreign messengers is a measure aimed at blocking one of the main channels of fraud. At the same time, access to calls will be restored if the platforms comply with the requirements of Russian legislation. In the meantime, WhatsApp refuses to cooperate with law enforcement agencies, the state is forced to protect its citizens through technical restrictions," the deputy stressed.

A separate risk is associated with the fact that WhatsApp is controlled by Meta, a company recognized as extremist in Russia. In addition, she was repeatedly convicted of transferring user data to Western intelligence agencies, Anton Nemkin noted. The platform does not localize the data of Russian users and does not comply with legal requirements, which makes it impossible to fully investigate many cybercrimes, the parliamentarian concluded.

As Izvestia wrote with reference to data from the Coordination Center of the .RU/ domains.In the Russian Federation, the number of fraud cases on WhatsApp in the first three months of 2025 increased sixfold compared to the same period in 2024. Phishing and social engineering remain the main tools of attackers — they easily adapt their scenarios to where people's attention is currently focused and where the chance of success is higher, explained Evgeny Pankov, an analyst at the center, to Izvestia.