The scale of cyber fraud in Russia continues to grow alongside the development of information technology. In 2024, fraudsters stole 200 billion rubles from Russians, roughly one-third more than in 2023.
In 2025, the situation has not improved. In the first five months alone, losses already exceeded 81 billion rubles. During the same period, more than 308,000 crimes in the IT sphere were recorded, including over 189,000 cases of remote theft and fraud.
According to the Interior Ministry, authorities managed to freeze 16 billion rubles held in cybercriminals’ accounts. However, that amount is 12 times smaller than the total sum Russians lost during all of 2024.
The groups most often targeted include young mothers, children, teenagers, young adults, and pensioners, especially those who live alone. People with low levels of education from remote parts of Russia also frequently fall victim to such schemes.
Russian authorities have responded in their usual way, relying on legislative tools. At the beginning of 2025, the government proposed and Russia adopted a first package of measures against phone and cyber fraud, containing 30 initiatives.
These included mandatory labeling of calls from organizations and a ban on employees of state bodies, banks, and telecom operators using messengers when communicating with clients. The most widely discussed change was the option for individuals to impose a self-ban on taking out online loans and credits. So far, 15 million Russians have activated that restriction.
After several months of work on new amendments, the authorities moved to the next stage. On August 26, the Ministry of Digital Development published a second package of measures on the regulatory acts portal, containing 20 new initiatives.