All news

Losses from cybercrimes in 2012 in Russia exceed 70 mln roubles

The majority of such crimes are bank card frauds
Photo ITAR-TASS
Photo ITAR-TASS

MOSCOW, November 29 (Itar-Tass) — Losses from cybercrimes exposed in Russia in 2012 exceeds 70 million roubles, head of Russia’s interior ministry department, Alexei Moshkov, said on Thursday at an international conference dedicated to the fight against fraud in the area of high technologies Antifraud Russia-2012.

According to Moshkov, during the year his department carried out a number of measures to expose organized crime groups specializing in stealing money from bank accounts of individuals and organizations.

“Total losses from their actions exceeded 70 million roubles. Members of such groups were detained, criminal cases were opened against them,” he said.

In the nine months of 2012, the number crimes involving computer and telecommunications technologies went up by 60 percent. The majority of such crimes are bank card frauds. Such crimes are showing an upwards tendency globally, he noted.

“In 2012, the number of such crimes increased by 1.5 times as compared with the last year. Such crimes are committed by members of ramified, well-organized crime gangs. Members of such groups usually have their own specializations,” he said.

According to expert estimates, more than 430 million people suffered from Internet criminals last year. “Fraud accounted for a larger part of these losses,” Moshkov noted.

“The actual number of fraud cases is much bigger than that exposed by police. Their latency is still very high,” he admitted. “Many people opt not to call the police if their losses from such crimes are not big.”