Many of the financial pyramids identified in Russia during the first quarter of the year have been associated with cryptocurrencies, a top central bank official has revealed. Fraudsters are actively exploiting the hot topics of the day, including the sanctions theme.
Pyramids Offer Russian Investors Ways to Circumvent Western Sanctions
Amid growing financial uncertainty, Ponzi schemes advertising opportunities to invest in digital assets are mushrooming in Russia. Of all financial pyramids detected by regulators in the first three months of 2022, well over half have used cryptocurrency as a lure.
“Schemes based on transfers using cryptocurrencies or investments in ‘digital instruments’ have received another impetus,” Valery Lyakh, director of Bank of Russia’s Department for Combating Unfair Practices told Tass news agency. More than 58% of the pyramids identified by Russian financial authorities in the first quarter of this year were linked to cryptocurrencies, Lyakh detailed.
As usual, the scammers take advantage of the trending topics in the news, the high-ranking representative of Russia’s monetary authority added. “Against the backdrop of financial uncertainties, calls to ‘save money’ in foreign jurisdictions, invest in a foreign project, in foreign securities are popular,” Lyakh elaborated.
Investment proposals like these have been made in the past but now fraudsters also exploit the sanctions imposed on Russia over its invasion of…
