Central Bank: In 2022, the Russians gave 50-100 thousand rubles to scammers

© Timur Khanov/PG

On average, in 2022, Russians transferred 50-100 thousand rubles to fraudsters, while the total losses from investments in financial pyramids amounted to about five to six billion rubles. This was announced by the director of combating unfair practices of the Bank of Russia Valery Lyakh.

According to the expert, these figures are quite high.

“But, for example, in 2021, losses only in the Finiko pyramid amounted, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, to over five billion rubles. The total losses from the activities of illegal immigrants and pyramid schemes, according to our estimates, have decreased by about 30-35 percent [в сравнении с 2021 годом. — Прим. ред.]”, – RIA Novosti quotes a representative of the Central Bank.

Lyakh explained that the decrease in the losses of citizens is due to the identification by the Bank of Russia of fraudulent projects at an early stage, when the organizers still do not have time to attract many people to them.

At the same time, the specialist pointed out that in 2022, attackers began to deceive Russians more often, promising ways to earn high-income hourly earnings – this scheme was used in almost ten percent of financial pyramids.

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The day before, Anatoly Aksakov, Chairman of the State Duma Committee on the Financial Market (Fair Russia – For Truth), told Parliamentary Gazeta that the House proposes to ban collectors from collecting debts of Russians to banks and MFIs in new territories until 2026. And those collectors for whom “the law is not written”, in special cases, it would be appropriate to deprive them of liberty for 10 years, if it turns out that they acted as part of a group using threats and violence.

The parliamentarian stressed that all those who show violence, knocking money out of citizens, must be held accountable. He also predicted a decrease in the number of complaints against collectors due to the introduction of serious restrictions on their activities by the Russian authorities.