Investment fraud

Stock market of Russia

Main article: Stock market of Russia

2022: Deception of citizens under the guise of investing in cryptocurrencies

In December 2022, it became known that a pensioner from Nizhnekamsk mortgaged an apartment and lost 3.5 million rubles, buying cryptocurrency under the guidance of a fraudster. On the Internet, a man saw an advertisement allegedly on behalf of a large bank that you can earn 90 thousand rubles a month, and left an application. He was contacted by Nikolai Kipyatkov, who introduced himself as an analyst, under whose leadership the pensioner "invested" 3.56 million rubles in cryptocurrencies. The pensioner had to take most of the money on credit.

2021

A significant increase in the share of phishing in the total volume of fraudulent attacks was recorded

On February 22, 2022, Kaspersky Lab and Raiffeisen Bank shared online fraud trends in 2021.

One of the topics that was relevant in 2021 was: investments banks other organizations purposefully promoted investment brokerage accounts. According to to data Kaspersky Lab, they did not malefactors stay away from this trend and tried to make their "investment projects" look especially tempting. To attract attention and gain the trust of potential depositors, fraudsters distributed ads RuNet on behalf of well-known businessmen and large companies. They proposed to contribute a small amount in order to time get impressive profits in return after some. In some cases, attackers emphasized the stability and lack of risks to the investor, as well as the status of the organization. To give solidity to the procedure, victims were asked to take a test or leave an application, and sometimes get specialist advice. The result was one: having given the money to the fraudsters, the investor did not receive anything. More. here

Fraudsters turn trading into casinos

Fraudsters did not miss the opportunity to take advantage of the growing interest of Russians in the financial market. In 2020, the Central Bank identified more than 1,500 entities with signs of illegal activities. This became known on July 19, 2021. A fourth of them were illegal forex brokers. In 2021, the trend continued and even intensified: for the first quarter, the Central Bank identified another 124 companies with signs of illegal forex dealers. What techniques are most often used by attackers and how do novice investors not get into the networks set up by fraudsters?

A sharp increase in the number of private stock investors (over the past year and a half, their number has more than doubled, more than 11 million Russians have brokerage accounts on the Moscow Exchange alone as of July 2021) has led to the fact that fraudsters have begun a real hunt for inexperienced investors. The attackers took advantage of the coronavirus quarantine and the growing popularity of remote services and launched an aggressive information campaign on the Internet, instant messengers and social networks to find potential customers, promising them quick and high earnings on the difference in exchange rates and securities quotes.

In fact, 70% of organizations did not provide brokerage services at all, being 100% fraudsters. The other 30 operated under the "cover" of a real or fictional license from a foreign regulator. Most often it was about Great Britain, the Marshall Islands or St. Vincent. There is no direct indication of fraud here, but you need to understand that companies licensed for brokerage activities issued by another state are not controlled by the Bank of Russia, are not obliged to comply with the requirements of Russian legislation, and in the event of unresolvable pre-trial contradictions, the parties will have to appear in the face of foreign Themis.

Very often, fraudsters hit two pain points at once, trying to play both on the growth of the popularity of brokerage activities and on the excitement around cryptocurrencies. Illegal forex dealers tried in every possible way to convince potential victims that at the moment it is much more convenient to work with cryptocurrencies than with real money, that transfers in bitcoins, broadcasts and moneros take place faster, and with much lower commissions, and besides, still anonymously.

At the same time, there were no real guarantees that the money would indeed be exchanged for cryptocurrencies and credited to the client's wallet. In most cases, they were immediately transferred to third-party accounts, and the deceived client gained access to a certain Internet page, which, in fact, was a game on which only trading activities were simulated.

Often fraudsters tried to disguise themselves as solid companies with a Russian and even world name. The attackers bought out very similar real domain names, created Internet sites, the color and graphic design of which was indistinguishable from the original, did not skimp on advertising. Inattentive victims transferred substantial amounts to pseudo-brokers, in return gaining access to the "personal account," and up to a certain point they could even withdraw small amounts of money from the dummy sites. However, after a short time, fraudsters stopped supporting all services, stopped communicating, and customers saw messages on the screens of their monitors or mobile devices about system errors or blocking accounts.

Well aware of all the danger posed by the intensified fraudsters for the country's financial system, the Bank of Russia is constantly replenishing its arsenal of measures to counter unscrupulous organizations so that they do not have time to discredit exchange trading as an essential element of economic activity. The regulator is constantly improving its own automated search engine, the task of which is to identify dubious and fraudulent financial offers on the Internet.

A law allowing pre-trial blocking of Internet resources containing advertising of illegal financial services should also help promptly respond to the actions of attackers. These and some other measures serve one single purpose - to extremely reduce the "life" of fraudulent sites in order to minimize the potential damage from their illegal activities.

The development of Internet technology and the increase in the number of private stock investors led to a sharp increase in the number of fraudsters working in the financial services market. This issue has been especially acute on the agenda for the past year, during which we recorded a sharp increase in the number of organizations that, within the framework of aggressive advertising campaigns, promise to train people in almost a few days in all the subtleties of working with exchange platforms and practically guarantee high earnings on fluctuations in exchange rates and securities quotes, reducing the difficult and painstaking work on the stock exchange to the level of a casino in the eyes of users! - believes Igor Isaev, chief investment strategist of Financial Broker August.

In fact, such promises can only be made by unscrupulous players, whose main goal is to withdraw money from the population. As a rule, such organizations do not conduct any real brokerage activity, and all customer payments are instantly transferred to third-party accounts, while victims in exchange for tens and hundreds of thousands of rubles gain access to the interface of computer games, where only a simulation of trading activities is carried out. When deception is revealed, it is almost impossible to do anything for the simple reason that the victim made all payments and transfers consciously and voluntarily.

It is always worth remembering that only brokers licensed by the Central Bank can be reliable conductors in the world of exchange-traded investments in our country. It is very easy to check its presence: the relevant information is in the public domain on the regulator's website.

The presence (confirmed!) Of foreign jurisdiction from the broker should not scare off investors. Moreover, many experienced Russian traders deliberately choose brokerages operating under foreign jurisdiction, since they have an objectively wider set of trading tools and opportunities. However, you need to understand that any litigation will have to be conducted in the country where the broker is registered, and this is almost always inconvenient and very expensive.

We must not forget that investments in the stock market are associated with increased risk: there are no fewer opportunities to lose money on it than to increase them. Therefore, it is worth recommending that novice investors adhere to conservative strategies based on the use of reliable and steadily growing assets^[1].

Deception of Russians using broker verification sites

In early April 2021, it became known about a new method of fraud in Russia using broker verification sites. According to the National Association of Financial Planning Specialists, fraudsters began to collect personal information, and in some cases money using sites to check the reliability of brokers.

Advertising is increasingly appearing on the Internet with an offer to check the broker online. If a person responds and visits the site, he is offered to indicate information about his intermediary company. After that, the site issues a message that this broker is on the "international blacklist." In order to receive useful instructions on what to do next, the victim is asked to enter his name and phone number.

Fraudsters began to deceive Russians using broker verification sites

As the deputy director of the association, Daria Andrianova, explained, several types of fraud are hidden behind such "black lists." In particular, fraudsters can offer supposedly legal assistance to protect the investor's funds, while a significant amount will be requested for issuing several template and often illiterate documents from a person.

In addition, fraudsters can put psychological pressure on the user and force him to transfer all the money to some "safe accounts" - which actually belong to them.

Do not lose sight of the fact that any such site collects a database of personal data of people with brokerage accounts, and immediately indicating in which company an account is opened, - warned Andrianova, whose words are quoted by RIA Novosti.

Fraudsters can use such databases themselves or sell to other attackers, as a result, a person will receive many calls from fraudsters or sellers of goods and services, the National Association of Financial Planning Specialists said.^[2]

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