Residents of Tatarstan are robbed of 15 million rubles daily
The most frequently affected categories of Tatarstan residents are people aged between 30 and 49
This year, residents of Tatarstan have already lost 145 million rubles more due to the actions of online fraudsters. Thanks to its economic development, the republic still ranks first in the Volga Federal District in terms of the number of such crimes. Why the Ministry of Internal Affairs is experiencing a shortage of personnel, why it is awaiting the end of the Special Military Operation, and which scheme is most popular among criminals — all this in the report by Realnoe Vremya.
Detection rate for such crimes stands at 21.2%.
In the first three months of 2025, 1.4 billion rubles were stolen from residents of Tatarstan. Last year, 1.2 billion rubles were stolen in the field of information and communication technologies (ICT), which is 145 million roubles less.
Out of the total number of crimes — 6,100 — 1,300 cases were solved, which amounts to approximately 21.2%. However, given such a low detection rate, the Ministry of Internal Affairs advises not to focus too heavily on these figures.
It is important to pay attention to the number of crimes detected and the individuals apprehended in connection with them. Tatarstan ranks first in the Volga Federal District in terms of such counteractions. However, across Russia as a whole, the region trails behind Moscow, the Moscow region, Saint Petersburg, the Leningrad region, and Krasnodar Krai.
The most frequently affected categories of Tatarstan residents are people aged between 30 and 49 — 37%, as well as those aged 50 and older — 36%. The least vulnerable are individuals aged 18 to 29 — 26%.
“We hope that after the end of the SVO, some sanctions will be lifted”
According to Musayev, an average of 15 million rubles is stolen daily in Tatarstan. Citizens’ settlement accounts have increasingly become targets, while a significant decrease has been recorded in cases involving alleged hacking of social networks, messengers, and Gosuslugi accounts.
He noted that Tatarstan residents “try in every possible way to cooperate with law enforcement agencies” if they receive a call from a “representative of such authorities.” People are afraid of becoming accomplices to the AFU and of “letting their country down,” so they comply.
“A bank, government agency, or any organisation will never call a person via a messenger app,” Katipov reminded.
At the same time, such fraudsters are often citizens of other countries, making it impossible to catch and properly punish them. Musayev said it is “no longer news” that they use spoofed numbers to make these calls. However, operators are now required to block calls if they are made using a Russian number but originate from foreign IP addresses. As a result, the criminals have switched to using messenger apps to avoid being blocked.
“Due to certain restrictions, we very much hope that after the end of the Special Military Operation, some sanctions will be lifted. Then we will be able to work more closely with the intelligence services of neighbouring countries. This will ease our work — wherever we can reach them, we certainly will. At the moment, many cases are on pause, but we are confident that in the future we will definitely return to them,” said Katipov.
As of today, out of more than a thousand criminals apprehended and brought to trial, around 50% are not citizens of Tatarstan.
Bank remembers your usual spending habits and will block suspicious transactions
For three years now, Russia has been actively developing cooperation between banks and law enforcement agencies. To date, the FinCERT system, which integrates information from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and banks, operates effectively.
For example, if a victim reports to the police, officers always inform them that they need to contact the bank with a complaint — for instance, if a transfer or money from their account was stolen fraudulently. When information about prohibited accounts comes from both the bank and the police, the account is blocked, significantly increasing the chances of returning the money to the victim.
“If you usually receive a salary, pay for apartments, transfer money to a phone, or perform other standard operations, the anti-fraud system records these actions as normal. If the system detects a sudden withdrawal of funds to different accounts or transactions that do not correspond to the usual patterns, it automatically blocks them,” said Musayev.
Only in such cases can bank employees contact the victim directly — to clarify whether they actually made the transaction and to ask if they know where the money is being transferred.
