In the first quarter of this year, telephone scammers managed to steal 4.3 billion rubles from Russians.
Photo: Shutterstock.
The law on new measures to combat fraudulent transactions has finally come into force. However, if the bank could have prevented the client from losing money, but did not do so, it will be obliged to return the money. But in most cases the transfer simply will not work. How will it work? And in which cases will it be possible to compensate for the losses?
Standard wiring
During the first quarter of this year, telephone scammers managed to steal 4.3 billion rubles from Russians. This, of course, is slightly less than in the same period last year (see chart). But the amount is still impressive. However, only one of the dozen affected customers managed to get their money back. It won’t be enough!
And the reason for these sad statistics is simple. Most of the translations are done on a voluntary basis. Yes, some people call them and introduce themselves as bank security officers, investigators, FSB chiefs, and even representatives of the Central Bank. They threaten or ask for help in catching the criminals. But the result is the same. The person picks up the phone and independently transfers money to the fake accounts of the criminals. Or he does it through an ATM, but also himself, not at gunpoint.
In this case, it is almost impossible to prove that the person acted under duress and did not send money to his accomplices and then pretended to be a “poor lamb”. With the new law, the number of victims should decrease dramatically.
single base
The fight against financial fraudsters is handled by a special division of the Central Bank, FinCERT. All information about suspicious transactions with clients’ money flows there. Various banks pour it there. For example, a tearful citizen came to the office and asked for his money back. They say that I was deceived, that I was tricked into transferring a million rubles to someone else’s account. The bank takes the case into account and reports to FinCERT the details of the account that participated in the criminal scheme. And then they find out who the owner of the account is and put the person on the blacklist.
Yes, the account is most likely registered in the name of a fictitious person. But it is what it is. Now this person can block this account and any other accounts in Russian banks. That is, for example, this person will still have bank cards, but they will not work.
– An important innovation is the disabling of electronic means of payment, for example online banking, for fraudsters. To identify attackers, banks will use various identifiers from the Central Bank’s database: account data and depersonalized passport data of fraudsters, Vadim Uvarov, director of the information security department of the Bank of Russia, explained in an interview with KP.RU this spring.
FinCERT ensures data exchange between all participants in the process. And among them are not only banks, but also mobile operators and law enforcement agencies. If at least once the data of the fraudsters is revealed and transferred to FinCERT, all banks will have access to this information. And they will be able to block transfers sent to the accounts of the fraudsters. More precisely, they could do this before, but now they will have to.
Take your time, wait!
The main measure that should significantly reduce the volume of losses is the requirement to suspend transfers if the Central Bank’s database contains information about the recipient of the money, cases and attempts of fraudulent transactions.
– The transfer will be suspended even if the customer insists on it or tries to make it again during the two-day cooling-off period. In this case, the bank will inform the person that the transaction was not carried out, will indicate the reason and the suspension period, explains the Central Bank.
If the bank does not make a payment, even if it sees that a fraudster may receive it, then the truth will be on the side of the deceived customer. The bank must return the lost money within 30 calendar days.
At the same time, if the bank suspended the payment for two days, as expected, but the client did not “come to his senses” during this time, then the rules are different.
“If two days later the client still decides to make a transfer to the same suspicious account, the bank is obliged to immediately execute such an order and will not assume financial responsibility for it,” the Central Bank emphasizes.
BY THE WAY
Five signs to stop a transfer
– The account or phone number to which the transfer is made is included in the Central Bank’s “black list” of fraudsters or in similar lists of commercial banks;
– During translation, devices that are in the same database are used;
– The operation is very different from the actions that the client usually performs;
– A criminal case has been initiated against the recipient of the funds;
– Signals from mobile operators about unusual customer activity. For example, long-term communication with an unknown number that is not included in the subscriber’s phone book.
How to get your money back
To return the money, you will need to write a request to the bank. The bank is obliged to do so within 30 days. But only under one of the conditions.
Firstly, the details through which the money was transferred were blacklisted by the Central Bank, but the bank ignored them. Secondly, the bank did not notify the client that a money transfer was being made, to which he did not give his consent. And thirdly, the client informed the bank that his card was stolen or lost, but the credit institution allowed it to be cancelled.
In fact, banks now have a financial interest in protecting their customers’ money. After all, if the bank makes a mistake, it will have to compensate the customer for the losses out of its own pocket.
There is, of course, one important nuance. All of these changes apply only to those transfers and transactions that will occur after July 25, 2024.
QUESTION FROM THE EDGE
What to do if a person is blacklisted by mistake?
Of course, it may happen that for one reason or another your phone number or account number accidentally ends up on this blacklist of the Central Bank. These errors are rare, but anything is possible.
In this case, there is nothing to worry about. The process of clearing your honest name (if you really have an honest name) is quite simple. Write a request either to your bank or to the Internet reception of the Central Bank (on the regulator’s website). It is necessary to indicate the following information:
– surname, first name and patronymic;
– series and numbers of identification documents;
– full and abbreviated names of the banks from which you learned about the inclusion of information in the FinCERT database;
– bank account and payment card numbers;
– phone number.
In addition, you will be able to indicate your TIN, SNILS, as well as the dates of conclusion of agreements on the provision of cellular communication services. The decision will be made within 15 days. It will be sent to you by email and to the bank where you are served. If your reputation is clean, access to your accounts will be restored immediately.
GRAPHIC ARTS
Fraud activity this year
Stolen: 4.3 billion rubles
We managed to return: 331 million rubles.
According to the Central Bank for the 1st quarter of 2024.
