- The Central Bank of Russia recently expressed their concerns about the growing number of financial pyramids and crypto-scams targeting Russian investors.
- Russian crypto scammers are looking for new ways to attract investors.
- Crypto scammers are now opening physical offices after going offline in order to attract more crypto investors and convince them to spend more money on digital assets; this bypasses the foreign sanctions and restrictions imposed by the government in the industry.
The Central Bank of Russia warns investors as this trend spreads the potential risks related to sharing personal information with different platforms, which often leads to loss of funds. Scammers going offline means they are preparing for a larger demand as Russians’ are losing access to global financial assets.
Crypto fraud is on the rise and has become more active this year, according to the Central Bank. They have identified 954 entities for the first half of 2022; that’s over a six-fold increase compared to last year and is still continuously growing.
Recently, the Central Bank of Russia eased some restrictions for Russian Banks that enables them to sell U.S. dollars and euros to the public. Currency restrictions are imposed due to a high demand for crypto coins and the increased supply of foreign cash in the country greatly affects the crypto market. On August 1, the Central Bank of Russia extended them for six months more until March 9, 2023. Russians citizens can only withdraw up to $10,000 worth of funds from foreign currency deposit accounts. Once the limit is exhausted, the remaining funds can be withdrawn in Russian rubles, at the daily exchange rate.
Russian President Vladimir Putin linked cryptocurrency as a criminal activity even though many Russians have been buying Bitcoin or other crypto coins to protect their funds from government measures or transfer them abroad. Putin ordered a closer attention to cross-border crypto transactions in particular. Due to Russians’ invasion of Ukraine, Russians are facing numerous sanctions imposed by other countries, especially the West. As a result, this affects international settlements and investments in foreign assets, and scammers are exploiting the radical change in the operations of traditional financial institutions.
Editor’s Note: This article by The Mega Maxi is not a financial advise.
