Forgers "clone" the Russian Central Bank, a state mint on the web

2020-04-07T20:09:29.845Z

Russian police discovered the largest online fake money printing facility, which competed with the Russian Central Bank. In a few months a gang of counterfeiters managed to sell an astronomical figure of 1 billion rubles, the equivalent of 12.5 million euros. The quality of the counterfeit banknotes was so high that not only numerous shops, but also experts could not identify them. In addition to using sophisticated high-quality machinery, counterfeiters used darknet to contact potential "customers". In fact, dozens of counterfeit criminals did not know each other, exchanging information and dividing the tasks on the Hydra platform, where they entered with the nickname, using TOR browser to ensure anonymity. The criminals sold the lots starting from 500 thousand rubles (about 7 thousand euros) for 10-15% of the sum in real money. However, the bulk of the profit was the lots between 10 thousand rubles (about 150 euros) and 150 thousand rubles (about 2.2 thousand euros), most requested in different Russian regions, which could be purchased for 30% of the value in real money . The pattern was as follows: the customer contacted the Hydra platform with the online store, agreed on the amount of the lot and made the payment, exclusively in cryptocurrency, to an anonymous online account. After that, using fake passports, the criminals sent the package of fake banknotes to one of the accomplices in a certain region by courier. The accomplice put false notes in a hiding place and communicated the coordinates to the buyer. Even the accomplices communicated with the "central" only through Hydra and did not know the "sender". Precisely because of the secrecy of the criminal association, Russian investigators for a long period of time were unable to catch the counterfeiters. After the arrest of some notorious drug dealers in different Russian regions, it was possible to identify the sender of the parcels, a 25-year-old Muscovite girl, Julia Isaeva, and her 25-year-old accomplice residing in the province of Moscow. It was these two who put investigators on the trail of real counterfeiters, then all arrested.