Russian fraudsters target victims' digital ruble ahead of CBDC launch

Fraudsters are already using multiple schemes to exploit Russia’s new digital ruble, well in advance of its full-scale implementation, scheduled to begin next September.

According to stakeholders quoted by the Russian press, it will take another year or two to develop a working mechanism for banks to return stolen digital cash to their owners, which they are obliged to do.

Criminals steal money using the digital ruble as bait

Fraudsters are usually very quick to take advantage of new financial systems and technologies, and Russia’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) is no exception.

As soon as its wider adoption begins, crooks will adapt, employing social engineering, interface forgery and user manipulation, according to Vladimir Chernov, analyst at the Freedom Finance Global brokerage.

Speaking to the Russian daily Izvestia, he elaborated:

While the digital ruble is still being tested, bad actors are already employing several schemes with the new form of national fiat, Meri Valishvili, associate professor at the Department of Public and Municipal Finance of the Plekhanov Russian University of Economics told the newspaper.

Fraudsters are now offering potential victims to convert their regular money into digital currency at a favorable exchange rate, for example, while the digital ruble hasn’t yet entered mass circulation.

They are also trying to convince citizens that transferring their savings from their bank account to a digital ruble wallet is mandatory. Others try to make them believe they need the fake digital tokens to make payments.

Another scheme involves a phone call from a criminal who presents themselves as an employee of the Federal Tax Service (FNS), informing the victim of a tax evasion fine that needs to be paid only with digital rubles, added Andrey Barkhota, an independent expert.

Russian banks to recover digital rubles transferred to fraudsters

At the same time, transactions with Russia’s CBDC will be much easier to control, noted Anatoly Aksakov, chair of the Committee on Financial Markets at the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament.

Experts interviewed by Izvestia agree. The design of the digital ruble, as a platform fully controlled by the state, allows all transactions to be permanently recorded and makes it easier to identify fraud-related flows, explained Vladimir Chernov.

Russian banks will have to compensate their clients for damages caused by fraudsters, Aksakov also emphasized. They will be responsible for returning the digital cash to the owners when the coins have been transferred to accounts blacklisted by the Central Bank of Russia (CBR).

While tracking a digital ruble transfer should not be hard, getting the money back from the recipient will still be a difficult task, according to Alexey Lukatsky, an information security consultant at the Moscow-based cybersecurity firm Positive Technologies.

The victim will have to wait for months, if not years, for a court decision. At the same time, a mechanism allowing banks to recover digital rubles they have already sent to fraudsters will most likely be in place in 2027 – 2028 at the earliest, Chernov expects.

Fraudsters stole 6.3 billion rubles (nearly $75 million) from Russians in the second quarter of this year, according to the CBR. New legislation introduced to combat such crime has been criticized for undercutting crypto use and trading in the country.

Trials with the digital ruble, with a limited number of participants, started in 2023. Initially planned for 2025, the full launch of the CBDC was recently rescheduled for next fall, with the approval of the State Duma, and will be carried out in stages starting from September 1, 2026.

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