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- Transferred by the nose: banks began to deprive Russians of access to their money for months
Transferred by the nose: banks began to deprive Russians of access to their money for months
Banks began to deprive Russians of access to their money for months, Izvestia found out. Credit organizations block citizens' accounts because of transactions that look suspicious — they are even concerned about several transfers to friends or payment by transfer in a store. Ideally, this should protect Russians from fraud and theft of money from their accounts. However, defrosting is periodically very delayed, customers complain. In some cases, support is very slow and makes it difficult to quickly resolve the problem. What is the reason for this and how to protect yourself from prolonged blockages — in the Izvestia article.
How banks keep funds on their cards
Russians are faced with more frequent money blocking on their cards, as evidenced by complaints in the popular rating of <url>, which was studied by Izvestia. Many customers complain that their funds are being held for more than 30 days, and sometimes even longer.
For example, MTS Money customers have experienced account locks for several months (this is a multibank service where you can open cards), follows from the data of the <url> national rating. In two cases, the funds were withheld for about six months. Several more Russians had their money frozen for a period of one and a half to three months. In some cases, control over money was returned to people after they complained about <url>.
A number of VTB clients found themselves in a similar situation. One of them complained about the account being blocked for six months, and another for four months. In addition, two more clients reported that their money had been frozen for about a month.
A similar situation was faced by a salary client of Gazprombank, who also waited four months for funds to be unblocked on his card. As a result, the credit institution allowed him to withdraw money, but for this the user had to bypass three bank branches and submit several applications.
In general, users of the national rating are actively complaining about withholding funds due to 115-FZ (an anti-money laundering law aimed at countering money laundering and terrorist financing). MTS Money receives the most complaints — customers of the service are more likely than others to write reviews about card blocking. Izvestia asked the mentioned banks about the reasons for the long-term retention of funds.
In general, when funds are blocked due to 115-FZ, bank customers often complain about obstacles from the support service or a delay in the processing of an application for withdrawal. At the same time, the main accounts of citizens were often blocked — for example, in one case, the client could not withdraw his pension.
Anti-money laundering legislation does not imply the mass application of suspensions or refusals to conduct operations, the press service of Rosfinmonitoring clarified. According to the service, there are no mass blockages.
Why do banks block transfers?
Blocking is often referred to as restrictions on remote banking services and refusals to conduct operations due to suspicions related to money laundering and terrorist financing, the press service of the Central Bank explained to Izvestia. The measures applied by banks are related to their active work to counteract the operations of fake individuals — droppers — and other schemes used by shadow businesses.
Droppers are bank customers who provide their cards for cashing out money, making transfers in favor of shady businesses or other illegal transactions. These can be funds from victims of fraudsters, money from drug dealers, crypto exchanges, illegal casinos and pirate sites.
Evgenia Lazareva, project manager of the Popular Front For Borrowers' Rights, confirmed the increase in the number of complaints about blocking under 115-FZ. According to her, this was influenced by the introduction of restrictions on transfers over 100 thousand rubles per month for users who got into the dropper database. This innovation came into force on May 15.
— Frequent account blockages have objective grounds. The financing of terrorism and extremism continues unabated, with increasingly sophisticated and veiled forms being used," says economist Andrei Barkhota.
The unblocking of accounts is delayed due to an increase in the number of financial frauds, said Alexander Bleznekov, head of the information Security department of the Telecom Exchange. In addition, banks are required to study in detail the transactions related to the blocking and request documents on the origin of funds. Multi-level checks also affect the duration of funds retention.
— The flow of verification operations has increased dramatically, which increases the burden on bank security services. However, the tightening of measures is inevitably accompanied by an increase in the number of complaints from bona fide customers who have been blocked due to formal grounds," explained Alexander Bleznekov. — You can call it a "forced evil" necessary to curb the avalanche of fraud.
Nevertheless, the laws do not talk about suspensions for six months, said Natalia Milchakova, a leading analyst at Freedom Finance Global. If an operation is considered suspicious, it is suspended for up to two business days. The client does not contact the bank, then it will be suspended for 30 days. If the deadline is longer, we are talking about the fact that the organization cannot cope with the flow of suspicious transactions, Andrei Barkhota said.
How to protect yourself from blocking money on your card
Nowadays, people often transfer money using a phone number that they hear for the first time in their lives. For example, in a cafe, if they say that the terminal is not working. However, this can be risky and can lead to the account being blocked for participating in anti-money laundering schemes, warned Elman Mehdiyev, Director General of the Association for the Development of Financial Literacy.
Increasingly, the blocking of an individual's accounts under 115-FZ is also preceded by a donation to charity or a transfer for a purchase at the market, in a vegetable stall or in a store, Evgenia Lazareva confirmed. We recommend that you pay attention to transfers: when collecting for household or public needs, it is better to use special collection services in banking applications, rather than simply placing ads in chat rooms.
When transferring money, friends should indicate the purpose — "gift" or "help," said the head of the Popular Front project "For the Rights of Borrowers." You should also work only with sellers and performers who are ready to conclude a contract and issue a check, the expert said.
The Bank of Russia warns about the risks of settlements with crypto exchanges and online casinos that operate illegally in the country. Such operations can lead to participation in criminal schemes and problems with banks. There are more and more cases when people deceived by scammers transfer money to the accounts of cryptocurrency sellers, thinking that they are sending it to a secure account. As a result, they unwittingly become involved in illegal activities.
A client may often be temporarily blocked if he entered the Central Bank's database of attempted transfers without the client's voluntary consent, the regulator's press service explained. If a person finds himself in such a situation at least once, banks will treat him with increased attention in the future. However, if the client believes that he was included in the list incorrectly, he can appeal this through his bank or directly through the Central Bank's online reception, choosing the topic "Information security".
To avoid including your banking details in the database of the Bank of Russia and to protect yourself from droppery, you should adhere to the following rules:
do not make money transactions at the request of strangers;
Do not give your bank card or access to your online banking to anyone.;
Do not share your card details, SMS codes, or push notifications with strangers.;
do not send money that came to you allegedly by mistake anywhere: contact your bank and ask them to make a reverse transfer using the sender's details.
Attackers immediately try to switch to alternative channels for conducting transactions, whereas ordinary people always try to defend their rights, Andrei Barkhota added. Banks understand this, so complaints and constant appeals can really help customers get their blocked funds back.
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