Authorities to introduce criminal liability for handing over bank cards to criminals: what are the risks

Criminal liability will be introduced for transferring bank cards to third parties (dropping). The corresponding bill has been prepared by the government. Knowingly transferring one's bank card to fraudsters for a reward will be punishable by a fine of 300 thousand to 1 million rubles and a criminal term of up to 6 years. Experts told MK why this measure may be difficult to implement.

Droppers (or droppers) are citizens who voluntarily and for a certain reward hand over their bank cards and accounts to fraudsters, to which they, in turn, transfer the stolen funds along the chain, and ultimately take them abroad. Usually, this is done by people with addictions or those who find themselves in a difficult life situation. “Drops are a key link in the chain of cashing out stolen funds,” says Albert Khaleyan, a lawyer at the Matveenko and Partners Bar Association. “Experts note that a significant portion of such cases are associated with the involvement of socially vulnerable groups, including students and the unemployed.”

After the adoption of the draft law prepared by the government, a citizen will face a fine of 300 thousand to 1 million rubles and a prison term of up to 6 years for knowingly transferring his bank card to someone else. If it is established that he transferred his bank card without malicious intent, then the punishment will still follow, it will just be less severe: from 100 thousand to 300 thousand rubles, a prison term of up to 3 years or 480 hours of forced labor. At the same time, the use of other people's cards and electronic wallets by so-called droppers (persons who collect drop cards) will be punishable by imprisonment for up to 6 years. This same draft law will classify transfers or receipt of funds without legal grounds as illegal transactions. "Previously, the authorities have already taken steps to combat droppers and fraud in general," recalls Eldar Gamidulaev, leading lawyer at Protector Law Firm. "One of these measures was the introduction of mandatory identification of clients when opening bank accounts and using cards. However, despite these measures, the level of fraud continues to grow, which may indicate their insufficient effectiveness."

According to the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, about 80 thousand people in Russia become mules every month, and in 2024, the number of transactions with mule cards amounted to 10 million. And this is despite the fact that many crimes remain hidden due to the difficulty of identifying such transactions. This is partly due to the fact that cryptocurrency is used in the chains of transfers from mules to the final recipients-criminals, since they are very often located abroad. “According to a study conducted in 2024, 70% of all cryptocurrency purchase and sale transactions in Russia are carried out using bank cards, and more than 70% of them use third-party cards,” says Grigory Osipov, a former FSB employee and now the director of investigations at the SHARD digital asset security platform. “The total crypto turnover in Russia last year amounted to 5.2 trillion rubles. Including 3.64 trillion rubles - turnover using bank cards, and 2.54 trillion rubles went through cards issued to third parties."

However, when implementing the bill, the authorities may face not only technical, but also purely legal difficulties. As noted by Timur Aitov, Chairman of the Financial and Information Security Commission of the Council of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) of the Russian Federation, the Criminal Code already contains articles under which droppers can be held accountable. For example, Article 174 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which is devoted to the legalization of funds obtained by criminal means, Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation "On fraud", and even the more direct Article 187 of the Criminal Code, which concerns the illegal circulation of means of payment - the sale of counterfeit payment cards and orders for the transfer of funds. However, all this does not work in relation to droppers. Perhaps the new articles will toughen the punishment for the guilty, but before that, the criminals must be caught. And they, for example, can claim that their cards were stolen, and they did not have time to contact banks and law enforcement agencies ...

"It will be difficult to prove the deliberate participation of the drop in the crime - many claim that they did not know about the schemes," warns Anton Sonichev, partner at the law firm "Sonichev, Kazus and Partners." "The main question here is what exactly does the legislator see as criminal goals?" asks Ignat Likhunov, founder of the Cartesius law agency. "If deliberate participation in fraudulent schemes is one thing, but if the legislator wants to criminalize the entire interbank turnover through third parties, it is quite another, this can affect a very significant part of the population." I would like to hope that law enforcement officers will not go to the point of absurdity and will not prosecute everyone in a row, if, for example, medicines in a pharmacy are paid for with a neighbor's or relative's card.