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- Card regiment: scammers have begun to circumvent the tightening of the law on droppers
Card regiment: scammers have begun to circumvent the tightening of the law on droppers
Scammers have found a way to circumvent the tightening of the law on droppers, according to a study on monitoring the DLBI ducknet (Izvestia has it). Since July of this year, they have been criminalized for transferring cards to third parties. Previously, criminals used to buy cards or at least their data from droppers. Now, in order to circumvent the ban, they have started asking people to conduct transactions themselves under the guise of cryptotransactions. Moreover, Russians do not even suspect that they are helping scammers. Whether the authorities will introduce new restrictions to close this scheme, too, is in the Izvestia article.
How have the dropper schemes changed?
Dropouts have begun to circumvent the ban on transferring bank cards to third parties, the DLBI darknet data leak intelligence and monitoring service told Izvestia. Previously, criminals offered potential droppers to sell their bank cards to them, but now they leave the plastic to the nominal owners and ask them to conduct transactions themselves. Moreover, people may not even suspect that they are helping scammers. The attackers tell them that they are allegedly conducting operations with the crypt and there is nothing illegal about it.
Those involved in the scheme are left with 1-2% of the turnover in the form of earnings. The new approach of fraudsters is more resistant to anti-fraud measures by banks, since the cardholder knows about all transactions, and is also available for requests from the credit institution, DLBI explained.
Droppers are bank customers who provide their cards for cashing out money, making transfers to shady businesses, or other illegal transactions. These can be funds from victims of fraudsters, money from drug dealers, crypto exchanges, illegal casinos and pirate sites.
As Lyudmila Bogatyreva, head of the Polylog Agency's IT department and an expert at the Regional Public Center for Internet Technologies (ROCIT), noted, criminals have begun to transform their approach due to the state's active fight against droppage this year, now fraudsters often leave the card to the owner and package transfers in a legend. For example, they claim that a person performs cryptocurrency transactions or helps withdraw funds from the crypt through P2P (that is, transactions occur between two people). At the same time, the person is allegedly paid a percentage for "technical work."
Since July 5, criminal liability has been introduced for droppers. The criminal faces a fine of 300 thousand rubles, as well as up to three years in prison for a one-time transfer of a card or access to electronic wallets, as well as for withdrawing stolen money. At the same time, the punishment for organizing such schemes is even more serious — up to six years in prison or a fine of 1 million rubles.
The revision of the law caused an increase in the cost of dropper cards on the black market, Izvestia previously wrote. This also served as one of the reasons for changing the usual pattern, said Dina Fomicheva, head of the Corporate sales Department at Telecom Exchange.
Izvestia asked the Interior Ministry how many such cases there have been since July 2025. Statistics show that there are still few of them, said Kirill Karamzin, an expert at the Digital Communications agency. In practice, there is a case where a person who became a blind dropper escaped punishment because he was involved in deception for the first time and actively cooperated with the investigation.
However, you should not assume that you can avoid criminal liability if you "drop" yourself without giving someone the card, warned Alexandra Pozharskaya, deputy head of the Popular Front project For Borrowers' Rights, expert of the Moshelovka platform. The law states that imprisonment is also provided for for self-interest in financial transactions using cards at the direction of another person.
Alexander Kiselyov, Managing Partner of the Prov law firm, clarified that judicial practice takes into account knowledge of the criminal nature of operations, coordination of actions with the organizers of the scheme and obtaining benefits from participation.
The growth of "gray" vacancies shows that the number of such attempts to involve people in criminal operations is now growing, said Ivan Goryachev, manager of the Servicepipe educational project. These schemes are relatively simple, focused on mass hiring, and scale well through instant messengers and social media.
— Meanwhile, the classic "rent" of a dropper card for a month for a fixed fee has not disappeared. For example, 1 million or 500 thousand rubles can be passed through plastic, and then returned to the owner. But even with the further return of the card, this is illegal," Kirill Karamzin summed up.
How not to accidentally become a dropper
Alexandra Pozharskaya from the Popular Front recalled that droppers also fall into a special database administered by the Bank of Russia. Since May 15, limits on transfers over 100,000 rubles per month have been in effect for people who find themselves in it.
The dropper database is formed based on information from banks about all cases and attempts of fraud. That is, if a person informed a credit institution that he sent a transfer under the influence of scammers, and as a result the money was stolen, the recipient's account will be entered into the Central Bank register. If a bona fide user is blacklisted and his access to online services is restricted or transfers are banned, he can appeal this decision.
In addition to the current measures to combat droppage, the State Duma is working on a bill on linking a bank account to an INN, Anatoly Aksakov, head of the State Duma Committee on the financial market, told Izvestia. According to him, the new system will help distinguish legal side work from fraud. In addition, a special database is being created that will "color" each conductor of a dubious operation. And if he has committed a suspicious act once, then he will not be allowed to do it the second time.
Alexander Kiselyov from the Prov law firm draws attention to the fact that linking an account to an INN will help combat droppers in conjunction with the planned restriction on the number of cards per person, but it may create additional difficulties for conscientious citizens in the form of account locks on suspicion of fraud. According to the lawyer, law enforcement officers have already begun work on identifying new schemes.
The experts also told us how not to become a "reluctant dropper." According to Dina Fomicheva from Telecom Exchange, first of all, you need to be very careful about online earnings offers and understand your role in the organization's activities.
Vladimir Ulyanov, head of the Zecurion analytical center, is sure that it is important to always understand where money comes from and who it goes to, as well as to be aware of the essence and grounds for transactions.
— In order not to become a victim, you need to follow the only principle: everything that is yours is yours alone, and no one has the right to use it, — said the chief lawyer of the Kontur product group.Aegis" and Staffcop Olga Popova.
The expert warned: you should not give your bank details to third parties, even acquaintances.
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