“Fraudsters do not lag behind trends, and sometimes they themselves create and promote them, using non-standard solutions. For example, in 2019, the creators of the pyramids actively began to raise funds from citizens for investments in the construction of residential buildings using 3D printers, ”said Valery Lyakh, director of the Central Bank’s Department of Unfair Practices, in an interview with Izvestia newspaper.
Another trick is the proposal to buy a ticket for cruise travel at a price of 50% below the market. According to the press service of the Central Bank, in order to receive this option, the victim had to transfer at least $ 100 to the organizer's account every month and attract at least five friends or acquaintances.
The regulator has detected several such pyramids. According to available estimates, about 500 people were involved in each of them.
In addition, in 2019 the financial pyramid was advertised in the Far East, which offered “investments” in the fast-growing economy of neighboring countries, primarily China.
“The company positioned itself as an international investment platform created on the basis of a foreign logistics company,” the press service of the Central Bank said.
They also warned that in order to give credibility, scammers began to indicate profitability in the advertisement, “calculated” up to tenths and hundredths of a percent.
Earlier, vice president of the Association of Russian Banks, a member of the board of directors of Unistream Bank Oleg Skvortsov, in an interview with NSN, assessed the situation with fraud related to customers of Russian banks.