A law has come into force in Russia that limits the maximum amount of transfers between individuals (drops or droppers) who have entered the Bank of Russia's database of fraudulent transactions to 100,000 rubles per month.
If a person is included in this list, banks must set a transfer limit for them. When such a client wants to make a transfer in the amount of more than 100 thousand rubles ($ 1,235), he will need to contact the bank branch with an identity document. It is also possible to suspend the validity of the card and online banking.
"Choose the lesser of two evils"
The Central Bank's database "On cases and attempts to make money transfers without the client's voluntary consent" is updated regularly, and this has already affected the entire so-called Russian crypto exchange, said Andrey Tugarin, founder of GMT Legal law firm.
He explained that the data in this database comes from both banks and the Interior Ministry. The consequence of getting into the Central Bank's database is blocking the use of payment cards and online banking until the details are withdrawn from the database, the lawyer says.
At the same time, he noted that if the banking details are received only from the bank, then there is a possibility of partial blocking, but in practice these are rare cases. If it's from the Interior Ministry, the lockdown is always complete, Tugarin says.
The expert recalled that in Russia there is no regulation of the exchange of cryptocurrencies and their circulation in general. In this regard, according to the lawyer, the p2p format, especially in conditions of financial constraints, has become the only way to buy and sell cryptocurrencies for a user with a Russian card.
Peer-to-peer (p2p) trading is a direct trade of users with each other without the participation of an exchange as an intermediary.
It's no secret that droppers (otherwise known as drops) are involved in the process of buying and selling cryptocurrencies through p2p, as well as such services are used by scammers to implement their schemes, which are called "getting into a triangle."
The triangle scheme on p2p platforms:
The fraudster simultaneously opens a deal with the seller of the cryptocurrency and with the buyer who is ready to transfer rubles. He gives the buyer the details of the seller, who sends the money, and the seller, seeing the receipt, transfers the cryptocurrency to the scammer's wallet. The scheme is applied in a similar way when selling goods: the victim thinks that he is paying for the purchase, and a random participant in a p2p transaction receives the money.
According to established practice, it is known that the banking details included in the database of the Bank of Russia belong not only to drops or scammers, but also to legitimate participants in p2p transfers, the lawyer added.
"Therefore, this limit of 100 thousand rubles can be compared with the saying "Choose the lesser of two evils." According to the logic of the regulator, this should make it difficult for a fraudster to draw conclusions, but for a legitimate participant there remains at least some opportunity to use their cards and online banking," Tugarin said.
"To the characteristic creak"
In fact, the course towards extrajudicial restrictions for Russian citizens has been taken since the amendments to 161-FZ, which entered into force in July 2024, says Ignat Likhunov, a lawyer and founder of Cartesius law agency.
According to him, "the market swallowed it up," realizing a certain need and not realizing the possibility of being in a similar situation "by denunciation, without trial and investigation."
On July 25, 2024, amendments to Federal Law No. 161-FZ came into force in Russia, according to which banks must return funds stolen by fraudsters to customers in a number of cases, including if a credit institution allowed a transfer to a fraudulent account located in the Central Bank's special database «On Cases and Attempts to Transfer Funds without the client's Consent».
"Since the 'experiment' was recognized as successful (after all, none of the opinion leaders even demanded to check its constitutionality for more than a year), it is logical enough that the nuts will continue to be tightened to a characteristic creak," Likhunov believes.
If we talk about the consequences for cryptocurrency exchanges, for p2p services on exchanges, then everything will become more complicated and more expensive, the lawyer believes.
In his opinion, the services will not disappear, but globally it is "a movement towards killing the market," Likhunov concluded.
