Popular trends and "easy" loans: how illegal immigrants deceive Russians in 2026

      In January-June 2026, the Bank of Russia identified 2.9 thousand projects with signs of illegal activity, including financial pyramids. This is 31% less than in the same period last year; however, the figure is comparable to the result of the previous half-year.

      The reduction in the total number of illegal projects is mainly related to the decrease in the number of financial pyramids. Their websites are attempted to be blocked at the launch stage, and then specialists monitor and restrict access to emerging copies of the resources.

      At the same time, fraudsters increasingly use popular trends in their schemes. Among the identified projects were offers of pseudo-investments in cryptocurrencies and data centers allegedly providing capacities for mining. Additionally, the perpetrators offered to purchase "own" digital assets.

      Typically, the organizers of such projects accept money in cryptocurrency. In the first six months of the year, more than 1 billion rubles in equivalent flowed into their controlled crypto wallets.

      At the same time, the number of offers from illegal lenders has noticeably increased — up to 1 thousand. This is twice the figure from a year earlier.

      The growth is also related to the increased demand for loans among people with high debt burdens. Banks and microfinance organizations impose stricter requirements on such borrowers than illegal lenders, who promise favorable rates and attractive conditions.

      Moreover, the statistics now include cases of shadow lending, where loans are issued by individuals or sole proprietors against real estate collateral.