Russian criminals turn to crypto investment as bait to entice victims

Crypto investment offers are among the most common tricks employed by Russian scammers this year, the interior ministry in Moscow revealed.

More traditional methods to entice victims, such as suggestions to send rubles to a “safe account,” remain on the menu and are even ranking higher.

Russia’s MVD lists country’s most frequent fraud schemes

Proposals to invest in crypto assets have been one of the most popular tools for fraudsters since the beginning of 2025, the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) unveiled.

The list of widely used traps also includes money transfers to accounts pitched to potential victims as “safe,” regular phishing attempts, and requests for prepayment for ordered items, the department detailed.

In a statement for the RIA Novosti news agency, the ministry’s press service elaborated:

“One common fraudulent scheme is the use of funds from citizens, supposedly for obtaining additional income, by investing in cryptocurrency, for example.”

A crypto scheme usually involves attracting unsuspecting investors to fake websites. Posing as brokers, the scammers offer customers their account management services.

They feed false profit information to the clients to tempt them to deposit more. Once the funds eventually stop flowing, the operators of these sites freeze the accounts and drain the balances.

Crypto investments are yet to be comprehensively regulated in Russia, and this is likely to happen next year, according to the latest statements on the matter by officials in Moscow.

Currently, they are only legal for a very limited group of professional, or “highly qualified” investors. To fall in that category, private individuals need to meet certain income and asset minimums that are beyond reach for most Russians.

“We would very much like to see legislation covering all aspects of investing in cryptocurrencies adopted in 2026,” Bank of Russia’s Deputy Governor Vladimir Chistyukhin said at a fintech forum last month. That doesn’t mean, however, that ordinary citizens will be allowed to put money into crypto assets or derivatives.

Fiat is still the top choice for fraudsters in Russia

In the fiat realm, criminals frequently call Russian citizens on the phone and pretend to be either law enforcement officers or representatives of government agencies and financial institutions.

The fraudsters then warn them about some purportedly dubious banking transactions, urging them to transfer their savings to a so-called “safe account” or, in the case of cash, hand it over to a courier.

The Russian ministry of the interior remarked:

“This year, the most common method of committing remote theft remains the transfer of funds to a ‘safe account’.”

The scammers would also use threats such as criminal liability for assisting the Armed Forces of Ukraine, against which Russia is waging a war, and other psychological tactics.

Many of the schemes involve online trading platforms, the ministry also noted and explained:

“A significant number of remote thefts are committed using online marketplaces. Under the guise of conducting a secure transaction, criminals send phishing links via instant messaging apps, obtain the victim’s bank card information and subsequently steal funds from the bank account.”

According to the security department, another widespread fraud scheme boils down to misappropriating funds sent as a prepayment for goods or services purchased online, which the buyer never receives.

Earlier, the MVD highlighted a number of signature phrases and common topics betraying likely scammers when they reach out to victims over the phone or via email.

The distinctive southern accent is often a telltale sign, too, the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper wrote in an article published Saturday.

The ministry urged Russians to be wary when they hear or read sentences like “they are trying to take out a loan in your name,” “download a special app to protect your finances,” “you need to confirm the transaction,” or “you must transfer the funds to a secure account.”