Astana, 21 October. Losses caused by fraudsters fell from 70 billion to 40 billion tenge compared with last year, and about 6 billion tenge that criminals tried to withdraw has been blocked in citizens' accounts, Beibit Birzhanov, head of a division of the Interior Ministry's Department for Combating Cybercrime, said at a briefing at the Central Communications Service.
"The amount of funds returned has increased by 12%. While last year the amount was less than five billion, today about six billion tenge is the amount of funds blocked in citizens' accounts, that is, withdrawals that were prevented," Birzhanov said.
The head of the department, Zhandos Suyinbay, explained how this figure is made up. The National Bank's anti-fraud centre, the service through which police and banks exchange information on suspicious transfers, registered 212,000 incidents over the reporting period, more than 76,000 of them at the initiative of the police. Some 4 billion tenge was blocked in accounts used for transfers, another 1.5 billion was frozen in the accounts of money mules, people who hand over their cards and accounts to others for illegal transactions, and 617 million tenge was voluntarily returned to victims. The speed of data exchange between police and banks, Suyinbay said, directly affects whether money can be saved and returned to victims.
The Interior Ministry, together with other agencies, has tightened the requirements for issuing online loans and registering SIM cards. "Last week the head of state signed the law we drafted on ratifying the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime, known as the Budapest Convention. This makes it possible to cooperate promptly and exchange digital evidence with the participating countries," Suyinbay said. A bill on ratifying the UN convention against cybercrime is also being prepared.
Police advise people not to share verification SMS codes, logins and passwords for banking apps with strangers, and in case of a suspicious call or transfer to end the conversation immediately and call 102 or their bank's hotline. Acting as a money mule is a criminal offence.
What it means: Fraudsters are taking noticeably less from Kazakhstanis than a year ago, while police, together with the National Bank's anti-fraud centre, are managing to stop more transfers. Next, the Interior Ministry is counting on international cooperation under the Budapest Convention.
Who benefits: Blocking suspicious transfers saves citizens' money, while tighter rules for online loans and SIM cards and criminal liability for money mules hit the schemes used to withdraw stolen funds. The reports do not specify the period over which the losses were calculated.
Background: Ratification of the Budapest Convention, according to the Interior Ministry, makes it possible to exchange digital evidence with the countries that are party to the treaty.
List of sources used: Zakon.kz, BES.media, BES.media
Artificial intelligence was used in preparing this material.
