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The first criminal case under Article 274.4 of the Russian Criminal Code has been opened in Moscow. The suspect has already been detained, and police are attempting to establish all elements of the illegal activity and the identities of his accomplices.
A new article of the Criminal Code , criminalizing the registration and transfer of subscriber numbers to third parties for mercenary motives or to assist criminals, came into effect on September 1 of this year. The harshest penalty under this article is up to three years in prison.
According to the case file, the detained Khimki resident decided to make some extra money and, at the instigation of an acquaintance, began visiting telecom operator offices, signing service contracts using forged powers of attorney from various organizations.
Following the instructions, the young man transferred the subscriber numbers he received to third parties for management. He was promised 9,000 rubles for each successful SIM card purchase.
During the search, police seized smartphones, SIM cards, documents, and other items of evidentiary value from the detainee.
Speaking in Dushanbe at the 35th meeting of the Coordination Council of CIS Prosecutors General, Russian Prosecutor General Alexander Gutsan noted the successes in combating the illegal use of SIM boxes and virtual PBXs in the country (criminalized in April 2025), as well as the mass purchase of SIM cards for fraudulent call centers.
As a result of inspections conducted by Russian law enforcement, more than 2,000 SIM boxes and over 500,000 SIM cards were seized , which were used to carry out up to 20 million fraudulent attacks per day. Fifty-six suspects, who collectively managed to register over 1 million subscriber numbers, were identified.
Given the complex nature of cyber threats, countering them is only possible with the combined efforts of various agencies. To this end, the Russian Prosecutor General's Office, Rosfinmonitoring, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the Bank of Russia have created and regularly update a unified database of digital crime traces.
Currently, this database contains over 6 million phone numbers, bank details, and web resources that have been implicated in cyberattacks. This backlog allows us to quickly stop covert calls and emails, identify fraudulent call centers , and freeze illicitly obtained income.
A new article of the Criminal Code , criminalizing the registration and transfer of subscriber numbers to third parties for mercenary motives or to assist criminals, came into effect on September 1 of this year. The harshest penalty under this article is up to three years in prison.
According to the case file, the detained Khimki resident decided to make some extra money and, at the instigation of an acquaintance, began visiting telecom operator offices, signing service contracts using forged powers of attorney from various organizations.
Following the instructions, the young man transferred the subscriber numbers he received to third parties for management. He was promised 9,000 rubles for each successful SIM card purchase.
During the search, police seized smartphones, SIM cards, documents, and other items of evidentiary value from the detainee.
Speaking in Dushanbe at the 35th meeting of the Coordination Council of CIS Prosecutors General, Russian Prosecutor General Alexander Gutsan noted the successes in combating the illegal use of SIM boxes and virtual PBXs in the country (criminalized in April 2025), as well as the mass purchase of SIM cards for fraudulent call centers.
As a result of inspections conducted by Russian law enforcement, more than 2,000 SIM boxes and over 500,000 SIM cards were seized , which were used to carry out up to 20 million fraudulent attacks per day. Fifty-six suspects, who collectively managed to register over 1 million subscriber numbers, were identified.
Given the complex nature of cyber threats, countering them is only possible with the combined efforts of various agencies. To this end, the Russian Prosecutor General's Office, Rosfinmonitoring, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the Bank of Russia have created and regularly update a unified database of digital crime traces.
Currently, this database contains over 6 million phone numbers, bank details, and web resources that have been implicated in cyberattacks. This backlog allows us to quickly stop covert calls and emails, identify fraudulent call centers , and freeze illicitly obtained income.