Droppers are dummies who help criminals cash out stolen money or receive goods purchased with fraudulent funds. They accept transfers or parcels to their accounts and addresses to hide the traces of real intruders. For their work, droppers receive a percentage, but risk criminal liability.
Bank card and payment fraud
Main article: Bank card and payment fraud
Chronicle
2025
Russia adopted a law on a 6-year prison term for droppers
State Duma Russia On May 27, 2025, it passed a bill introducing criminal liability for droppers - persons who transfer their bank cards to fraudsters. The maximum punishment is up to 6 years in prison and fines of up to ₽1 million.
According to Interfax, amendments are proposed to Article 187 of the Criminal Code of Russia "Illegal circulation of funds for payments." The bill was introduced by the government and provides for liability for persons who, under the influence of intruders or for monetary remuneration, draw up or transfer their bank cards to fraudsters.
Russia
For the transfer of a personal bank card for remuneration, the bill provides for various types of punishment: - a fine of ₽100 thousand to ₽300 thousand or in the amount of income from three months to a year - compulsory work up to 480 hours - correctional labor up to two years - restriction of freedom to two years
A similar punishment is provided for bank customers who perform illegal transactions with cards provided to them at the direction of another person or in the interests of another person.
More stringent liability is established for the purchase or transfer of a card out of selfish interest by persons who are not clients of the bank. In this case, fines are provided from ₽300 thousand to ₽1 million, forced labor up to four years, imprisonment for up to six years with the possible imposition of a fine from ₽100 thousand to ₽500 thousand or in the amount of income for the period from one to two years.
The most serious responsibility is provided for illegal transactions using other people's bank cards or electronic wallets. This is punishable by forced labor for up to five years with a fine of ₽300 thousand to ₽1 million or imprisonment for up to six years with a fine of the same amount and with restriction of freedom for up to two years.
An illegal transaction according to the draft law means a transfer of funds made using an electronic means of payment, the issuance or receipt of cash from an account that is credited to the client's bank account without legal grounds.[1]
The Central Bank of the Russian Federation has launched a dropper base. The Ministry of Internal Affairs explained how not to get into it
In mid-May 2025 Central Bank Russia , it launched a database of individuals involved in fraudulent transactions known as "droppers." In mid-May 2025 MINISTRY OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS , Russia issued recommendations for citizens on how to avoid falling into this base, which will entail serious restrictions on financial transactions.
According to TASS, the Department for the Organization of the Fight against the Illegal Use of Information and Communication Technologies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia has published three basic rules for citizens, compliance with which will help avoid including droppers in the database. The agency recommends never transferring your bank card to third parties, not making transfers at the request of strangers and immediately contact the bank in case of an erroneous transfer. The main principle of security, the Ministry of Internal Affairs emphasizes, is not to participate in illegal schemes.
From May 15, 2025, the possibilities of droppers for withdrawing and cashing out funds will be further limited. The Bank of Russia forms a database based on information received from banks and law enforcement agencies. This information becomes available to all financial institutions and authorities, which allows you to create a unified system of countering financial fraudsters.
For persons who are included in the dropper database, significant restrictions are introduced: they will be able to make transfers no more than ₽100 thousand monthly. Such a measure is designed to minimize the damage from the actions of fraudsters and make it difficult to cash out the stolen funds.
It is important to note that inclusion in the database can be appealed. To do this, a citizen must submit an application through any bank where he is a client. The bank is obliged to redirect the appeal to the Central Bank within 24 hours. An alternative way is to send an appeal through the Internet reception of the Bank of Russia, choosing the topic "Information Security."[2]
Sber: There are 2 million droppers in Russia
In May 2025, Sberbank published the results of a study according to which about 2 million droppers operate in Russia - people who provide their bank cards and accounts for fraudulent transactions. This data reflects the serious scale of the problem of using dummies to launder and cash in stolen funds.
The Informzaschita company estimates that since 2023, from 8 million to 12 million people have provided their bank cards to transit or cash out stolen money. Moreover, about 30-35% of these persons are migrants and non-residents, which indicates the wide spread of this practice among various categories of the population.
According to Informzaschita, since February 2025, about 80 thousand people have been replenishing the ranks of droppers every month. These statistics indicate a steady influx of new participants in cyber fraud schemes, despite increased security measures by banks and law enforcement agencies.
Sberbank notes a change in the tactics of fraudsters: the activities of droppers are increasingly going offline. Cybercriminals began to actively use drop couriers, who, under various pretexts, are sent to victims for personal receipt of cash, savings and valuable things. According to the bank's specialists, such a transformation is associated with an increase in the anti-fraud protection of the banking system, which forces fraudsters to look for new ways to commit crimes.
Evgeny Vinokurov, head of the Alfa Bank Cyber Fraud Prevention Directorate, explains the increase in the number of droppers by an increase in the attractiveness and convenience of banking services while maintaining a low level of responsibility for this type of illegal activity. This combination of factors creates a favorable environment for involving new participants in fraudulent schemes.[3]
Central Bank of Russia revealed the main types of droppers and their roles
In March 2025, the Bank of Russia presented a systematic classification of shadow turnover participants involved in cashing out stolen funds. The regulator's report reveals the main types of so-called droppers - intermediaries through which the withdrawal of funds obtained by criminal means passes. According to the published information, droppers are divided into three types depending on their functions, as well as two categories depending on the level of awareness of their participation in illegal operations.
According to RIA Novosti, the materials of the Central Bank indicate that the main types of droppers are inundators, transit workers and cashiers. Each type performs a specific function in the money laundering chain obtained illegally.
Transit workers are an intermediate link in the scheme of movement of stolen money. They receive funds on their bank card, after which they transfer them further along the details provided by the curator. Such persons do not deal physically with cash, but only ensure their movement between accounts.
Bottlers, unlike transit workers, work with cash. Their main task is to receive money from couriers and then deposit these amounts through ATMs to these accounts and cards. This process is called "pouring," hence the name of this category of droppers.
Cashiers are engaged in a reverse operation - they receive money on the card and withdraw it through ATMs. After that, they either transfer cash to other couriers, or they themselves act as couriers, transporting money to other regions to continue the withdrawal chain.
In addition to the functional division, the Bank of Russia uses another classification of droppers - by the degree of their involvement and awareness of participation in criminal schemes. According to this classification, droppers are divided into "drawable" and "non-drawable."[4]
80 thousand new droppers appear in Russia every month
Every month, about 80 thousand Russian and foreign citizens become droppers. This was announced in February 2025 by the deputy chairman Central Bank Olga Polyakova at the Ural forum. According to Polyakova, youth and minors mainly become droppers "in a matter of thousands." rubles According to the Bank, in Russia 2024, about 10 million customers of Russian banks transferred money to the so-called dropper cards.[5]
2024
How fraudsters in Russia are looking for droppers to withdraw stolen money to their cards
In October 2024, it became known that the attackers intensified the search for dummies to withdraw stolen funds through dating sites, game and house chats after the amendments to the law "On the National Payment System" entered into force on July 25, 2024. The new rules oblige banks to block suspicious transfers for two days if they are made to accounts from the base. Central Bank Russia
According to RBC, Anastasia Chursina, an analyst of threats in the dark web of Positive Technologies, noted an increase in the number of messages about the search for droppers by 15% since the beginning of September 2024 after a temporary decline in activity in July-August. The average usage of a single drop card was reduced to two days.
Oleg Zamiralov, head of the T-Bank Ecosystem Protection Center, spoke about new schemes for recruiting droppers. Fraudsters use dating sites to search for girls with financial difficulties, offering them to transfer money through their accounts allegedly to save on commissions. In game chats, attackers lure teenagers by promising to exchange bank details for virtual items.
Dmitry Revyakin, Head of the Corporate Interests Protection Department of VTB, reported a consistently high demand for dropper services. The schemes also involve third parties in cryptocurrency trading and post ads about easy earnings in large industry chats and comments on posts by popular bloggers.
Specialist F.A.C.C.T. in countering financial fraud Dmitry Dudkov pointed to an increase in the cost of bank cards issued on dummies from ₽20 thousand to ₽30 thousand at the beginning of 2024. There is also a tendency of mass registration of dropper cards for visitors from the CIS countries.
According to Sber Bank, the number of Russians involved in droppings reached 2 million people by October 2024, with 60% of them young people under 24 years old. For participation in the schemes for withdrawing stolen funds, criminal liability is provided under Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation with a maximum punishment of up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to ₽1 million.[6]
For the first time in Russia, "drops" received a deadline for the sale of their own bank cards and passwords to them
In September 2024, the court of the Altai Territory sentenced three residents of the Rodinsky district for selling their bank cards and providing access to them to third parties. For the first time in Russia, young people known as "drops" received a term for such actions. The crime was committed in 2023 when the accused handed over their cards and passwords to them to fraudsters in exchange for a cash reward, the court found.
According to KP, two young people and one girl from the village of Rodino received an offer through a messenger to sell their bank cards with access to them. Without realising the gravity of the consequences, they agreed to a deal. As a result, all three were in the dock under Part 1 of Art. 187 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation for the sale of electronic funds intended for illegal financial transactions. The court sentenced them to 6 months of suspended imprisonment, taking into account their young age and the fact that the crime was committed for the first time.
According to the United Press Service of the courts, at the time of the crime, the guys were schoolchildren of 16 years old, and the girl, who was 18 years old, studied at college. The reward for the sale of bank cards was symbolic - the guys received ₽1,5 thousand each, and the girl - ₽12 thousand. The court took into account mitigating circumstances, such as the defendants' remorse and lack of previous convictions.
In the court session, it was emphasized that all three knew about the inadmissibility of transferring their bank data to third parties when they made bank accounts. However, young people decided to take advantage of the offer of "easy earnings," not realizing that in this way they become complicit in fraudulent schemes.
According to Roskomnadzor, drops are people who issue bank cards for themselves and transfer them to fraudsters to withdraw stolen funds. Many of them are unaware that their actions are illegal and can lead to serious consequences.[7]
Telecom operators in Russia began to offer banks services to identify customers through which they withdraw stolen money
In February 2024, telecom operators in Russia began offering banks services to identify customers through whom they withdraw stolen money. We are talking about recognizing the so-called droppers - citizens who participate in a fraudulent scheme, giving attackers access to their bank account to cash out or transit stolen funds.
According to Kommersant, MTS offers financial organizations a service for checking individuals before providing financial services. The essence of the service is that when opening a bank product, the client enters a phone number, and the bank sends it to the operator to check for suspicious patterns of behavior, such as frequent change of SIM cards, lack of linking the number to the Internet bank, visiting certain Internet resources, etc. The assessment is carried out using scoring models, including for customers of other operators.
A similar service offers VimpelCom"." The company told the newspaper that the service "has models that, in machine learning particular, assess patterns of behavior and are able to recognize suspicious actions of the client." According to the representative, Tele2 the company is also going to offer a service to identify droppers both among its subscribers and customers of other telecom operators.
According to financial sector Kept Olga Blednova, director of consulting practice for companies, one of the main signs of droppers is a frequent change SIM cards in a short period of time, including in different regions, or the lack of linking a number to an Internet bank.
As Kristina Timofeeva, a lawyer in the intellectual property practice of K&P Group, noted, telecom companies have no right to provide information about subscribers to other operators, as well as transfer this information to banking organizations if there is no consent from the user himself.[8]
In Russia, they plan to introduce criminal liability for drifting
The Ministry of Internal Affairs, together with other departments, on behalf of the government, "is working on the issue of establishing criminal liability for persons who help cyber fraudsters to draw up accounts and issue bank cards for monetary remuneration," said ministry spokesman Roman Bubnov. While the droppers manage to avoid responsibility. This became known on July 12, 2022.
Droppers, or drops for short, are people who either provide their data to scammers to open accounts in order to take stolen money along the chain, making it difficult to reach the original attacker, or do so through their accounts.
The problem requires a solution, experts interviewed by the source confirmed. Such schemes, along with unemployed, marginalized, guest workers and students, involve teenagers who are looking for quick and easy money.
 | Often, fraudsters use social networks and local district communities to search for droppers, "said Evgenia Lazareva, head of the Moshelovka Popular Front project. It is estimated that the dropper's income can even be up to 40% of the transfer. |  |
With the difficulty of transfers abroad under the conditions of sanctions, the demand for intermediaries increases, since mainly the transfer of funds is carried out through cryptocurrency.
According to Bobunov, the main way to minimize cyber fraud is preventive measures, or prevention.
| | This activity includes two main aspects. The first is activities to raise awareness and digital and financial literacy of the population. The second aspect of the prevention of IT crimes is the improvement of legislation in the field of digital services, the introduction of various restrictions on the use of personal data and mechanisms for their additional protection, - said the representative of the ministry. | |
As explained by the lawyer of KA "Yukov and Partners" Jamali Kuliev, as of July 2022, they are prosecuted for this under Art. 172 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Illegal Banking"), however, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation proposes to allocate the drip to a separate composition. This is the right initiative, since the disposition of the 172nd article is quite extensive, Kuliev believes.
| | If we are talking about a qualified composition - committed by an organized group, income was extracted on an especially large scale - then the punishment should be more severe - up to seven years in prison, - said the expert[9]. | |
Notes
- ↑ Bill on deprivation of freedom of droppers for up to 6 years adopted in I reading
- ↑ The Ministry of Internal Affairs named three main points on how not to get into the dropper base
- ↑ Sberbank calculated the number of droppers in Russia
- ↑ Russians told about the main types of droppers
- ↑ The Central Bank estimated the number of new droppers in Russia at 80 thousand people a month
- ↑ Experts have described schemes for finding droppers through games and dating sites
- ↑ In Altai, three young people received a term for the sale of their bank cards
- ↑ Scammers are greeted by an answering machine
- ↑ In Russia, they plan to introduce criminal liability for dripping
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