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- Family prisoners: banks require you to come to the office with your relatives to unfreeze the account.
Family prisoners: banks require you to come to the office with your relatives to unfreeze the account.
Banks began to require people to come to the branch with their relatives to defrost the account, Izvestia found out. We are talking about situations when he was blocked to protect a person due to suspicions that he was under the influence of fraudsters. Such requirements are imposed even if the person did not use the "second-hand" service and did not agree to be monitored by relatives. For the bank, this is an additional protection so as not to carry out a fraudulent transaction and then not have to compensate for the damage. But for conscientious users, this causes inconvenience: relatives may live in another city or country, and they may not have the best relations. Whether such requirements are legal and whether they help in the fight against fraudsters can be found in the Izvestia article.
Why do banks make it difficult to unblock accounts
Banks began to require the presence of relatives to unfreeze accounts that were blocked to protect users from fraudsters. A client of Alfa-Bank faced this situation, she told Izvestia about it. Muscovite Angela (name changed) issued a non-targeted loan and wanted to transfer money to her account in another financial institution. However, the operation was suspended, and a bank employee called her. And after answering questions about the loan, access to the account was frozen.
To unlock it, she was required to come to the department in person. There, the client was asked questions about the types of fraud. As a result, they refused to unfreeze the bill, demanding that she come with her son. During the proceedings, the client received a salary to the same account, and interest ran up on the loan, while she did not have access to money.
The Association for the Development of Financial Literacy (ARFG) confirmed that they are aware of similar cases when clients had their accounts blocked to protect them from fraudsters and were asked to come with relatives to unfreeze them. This can happen in atypical situations if the bank sees risks for the client. For example, a non-standard case can be considered when an elderly person applies for a loan or credit card and starts transferring money using a mobile bank, explained Pavel Nikitin, an expert at the ProFiT ARFG project.
According to him, the same is true, for example, with early termination of a deposit with loss of interest and subsequent transfer of funds to other banks, even to their own accounts.
— Usually, the movement of money is checked in three stages: all operations are analyzed by special algorithms in automatic mode. When a payment looks suspicious, it is sent to a bank employee for manual verification. If they still have questions, they can call you or send you a request. The bank may also ask you to confirm the transfer using a code word," said Ilya Vasilchuk, a trial lawyer.
He added: in more complex cases, the bank may ask you to come in person, provide a contract, check or other document that confirms the reason for the transfer. At the same time, recently, in order to verify the client's free will, credit organizations have gone further — they began to ask to come to the branch with a close relative.
Banks are currently considering or already implementing similar practices, confirmed Alexander Petrovsky, Deputy Head of the Information Security Department of the BBB Bank. According to him, the Central Bank also recommends using a "second-hand" service. It allows you to involve a trusted person or a relative of the client to confirm the operation.
This service is already in operation with a number of credit institutions. However, to connect it, a person must contact the bank himself or connect such a function in the application. He can set the parameters of which operations he wants to confirm with relatives. Otherwise, such a system should not work.
In the described case, the Muscovite Angela did not connect the "second hand" service. Later, the bank met her halfway and forgave her the accrued interest on the loan during the account lockout. Izvestia contacted Alfa-Bank for comments.
The pros and cons of new anti-fraud measures
In most banks, the possibility of account blocking and access to a personal account is provided for in a comprehensive service agreement, said Pavel Nikitin from ProFiT. In other words, credit institutions operate quite legally.
The practice of inviting relatives is common among individual players, added Vladimir Ulyanov, head of the Zecurion analytical center. In this case, employees rely on internal instructions, and they are not publicly available.
However, according to Polina Lebedeva, a lawyer and founder of the Constant Academy, we are talking about obvious excesses in the application of anti-fraud measures. She reminded me: Since July last year, a law has been in force that gives banks the right (and sometimes obliges) to stop suspicious transactions of Russians and, in some cases, block their accounts in order to protect customers from fraud. If a financial institution does not comply with these requirements, and fraud occurs, then it must compensate the person for the losses.
Probably, banks, fearing responsibility, show excessive zeal and apply measures that go beyond the established limits, Polina Lebedeva emphasized. No law gives a credit institution the right to require customers to bring their relatives with them. On the contrary, they should explain the procedure for removing the lock, and if necessary, help.
This example is far from the only one. The growing number of complaints about the suspension of remote banking services indicates obvious excesses. In the first quarter of 2025, their number increased by 37% compared to the same period in 2024, the lawyer noted. In her opinion, it's time for the regulator to take action.
The Bank of Russia does not comment on the activities of banks and specific cases, the press service of the Central Bank told Izvestia. They added that scammers quickly change their schemes and scenarios for stealing money from people. Therefore, credit institutions are constantly improving their anti-fraud procedures, including during face-to-face interaction with customers who are potentially under the influence of intruders.
In certain cases, for example with clients of retirement age, this comprehensive measure may be justified, says Pavel Nikitin from the ProFiT project. The fact is that a relative can explain the essence of the operation and warn the client against making a mistake, added Vladimir Ulyanov from Zecurion.
However, on the other hand, this restricts human rights and often makes access to financial instruments impossible, according to Alexey Tarapovsky, founder of the Anderida Financial Group. Moreover, it is unclear what to do for clients who have strained relations with relatives or live in another city or even a country. Moreover, the degree of kinship is not always equal to immersion in financial issues, the expert noted.
What do banks say about calling relatives to the office?
— If the bank has reason to believe that the client is under the influence of fraudsters, a request may be made to come to the branch in person. This practice has proven itself well.: Some citizens are under strong psychological pressure from intruders, and it takes a lot of effort for the bank's employees and security service to get them out of their influence. Also, in order to open a person's eyes to what is happening, a credit institution can involve employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and contact the victim's relatives, the Sbera press service said.
The bank can indeed restrict transactions, block cards and remote services if it sees signs that customers are under the influence of fraudsters, said the Vice president for Information Security at Dom Bank.Russian Federation" Dmitry Nikishov. However, according to him, this happens only in cases stipulated by law and the bank's contractual obligations to customers.
The requirement for the personal presence of the client is necessary to make sure that he really performs an operation or takes out a loan without being influenced by fraudsters, the VTB press service explained.
The Bank responds to the transfer of funds without the voluntary consent of customers in accordance with the requirements of the legislation and regulations of the Central Bank, added the press service of the Post Bank.
Credit organizations are trying to protect customers from fraudsters, said Alexey Tarapovsky from Anderida Financial Group. However, in his opinion, it is necessary to achieve a balance between the interests of users and the financial organization.
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