A new type of financial pyramids in the form of “online investment games” has become widespread in Russia, RBC reports with reference to Valery Lyakha, head of the Department for Countering Unfair Practices of the Bank of Russia.
According to the lawyer, now such projects account for about 8% of all financial pyramids identified in the third quarter of this year, but some of them are still in their early stages.
Fraudsters lure users with the opportunity to make easy money, offering to engage in investments in a playful way – for example, in virtual real estate, the specialist explained. At the same time, in order to receive a reward or a win, as in classical financial pyramids, you need to bring in new players. Otherwise, the project stops, and money cannot be withdrawn from it.
Money for participation in the project is transferred through a personal account on the site in various ways, including cryptocurrencies. Lyakh noted that most pyramids attract money using cryptocurrency or under the guise of investing in it.
In addition, the Central Bank revealed a surge in the popularity of financial pyramids using the fashionable technology of non-fungible tokens (NFT) – digital certificates confirming ownership of a digital asset. Participants of such projects make in-game purchases for cryptocurrency, which outside the game cannot be converted into anything else.
It is noted that in the third quarter of this year, the Central Bank identified 278 financial pyramids, in total, in January-September, the activity of 424 such schemes was recorded (versus 140 in the same period last year).
According to the Central Bank, on average, participants in financial pyramids in Russia give fraudsters from 50 to 100 thousand rubles, but in some cases this amount can reach 100 million rubles.
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