According to RT’s interlocutor, it is extremely difficult to bring telephone scammers to justice due to the sophistication of their operating schemes.
“A lot of these calls come from abroad, not from Russian numbers. Or even the numbers are Russian, but the attackers themselves are located abroad... There are entire call centers that deceive Russians, posing as employees of a bank, the Tax Service or law enforcement officers... Since they are abroad, it is very difficult to track them or bring charges against them . They use fake accounts opened in banks for Russians. There is such a scheme that the recipients of these funds do not know how they came and how they left. They use such a scheme that it is impossible to track and return,” Yarmush explained.
However, according to the lawyer, if the violation of the law is proven, then the criminals will face a considerable period of imprisonment.
“Those amounts that usually appear amount to Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Fraud”, but on the first and second points. If it is just a small amount, then imprisonment for up to two years. There is a second point, where significant damage to a citizen is considered. If a fraudster forces a pensioner to transfer, for example, 100 thousand rubles, then he may well receive a prison term of up to 5 years,” said RT’s interlocutor.
The above article implies imprisonment for a more serious term if the fact of fraud on a large and especially large scale is proven.
“A large size is 3 million rubles or more, and a particularly large one is more than 12 million rubles. And we understand that telephone scammers are unlikely to get hold of such amounts. But if they take possession, then there will be completely different deadlines. There may be a prison term of up to 10 years,” Yarmush concluded.
Earlier, Valery Tumin, a member of the Expert Council for the Development of the Digital Economy under the Economic Policy Committee of the State Duma, commented on a new fraud scheme using artificial intelligence.