A major communication hub for remote fraudsters has been eliminated in Moscow.

Police officers in Moscow, together with the regional Federal Security Service (FSB), identified and suppressed a large communications hub based in the city, which was used by remote fraudsters. This was announced on March 20 by Vladimir Vasenin, head of the press service of the Moscow Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia.

"As a result of operational search measures, two men and one woman aged 21 to 34 were detained. They are suspected of illegally using subscriber terminals for passing traffic," he said.

It was established that the attackers, who lived in rented apartments in the Northwestern city District, ensured the smooth functioning of the SIM boxes. They received all the necessary equipment from the curators, to whose offer of earnings they responded online. During searches, over 1,000 SIM cards, laptops and other items were found in the detainees' possession, proving their involvement in the commission of illegal acts.

A criminal case has been opened under Article 274.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Illegal use of a subscriber's terminal or a virtual telephone exchange"). All the defendants are in custody, and the organizers and their accomplices are being identified.

Taking money: how scammers use SMS bombing against Russians

The attackers are trying to cause panic in their potential victims

On March 19, the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia in Moscow reported on the suppression of the activities of two 19-year-old young people who were engaged in servicing fraudulent call centers. The young men, living on Berezovaya Alley Street, received 200 new SIM cards from their supervisors every day, and also kept three GSM gateways and SIM boxes. They also managed over 1,000 SIM cards, which have been actively used over the past three days.

All important news is on the Izvestia channel in the MAX messenger.