Russian police take down scam communications hub linked to Ukraine PHOTO / VIDEO

Officers from the Cybercrime Unit of Russia’s Interior Ministry in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region, together with a special police regiment, shut down the activities of a group that supported fraudulent call centres operating from Ukraine on February 2, the ministry said on its Telegram channel.

During operational measures, two accomplices were detained in rented apartments in the city of Murino and the village of Novoye Devyatkino. They were identified as a 20-year-old unemployed woman from the Pskov region and a 28-year-old man who had previously lived in the Republic of Kalmykia, Caliber.Az reports.

Investigators say that since August 2025, the suspects had been servicing SIM boxes—specialised systems used to route phone traffic, allowing calls to be made from abroad while spoofing their location.

The equipment and SIM cards were delivered to them by couriers from their handlers, and the suspects regularly changed their places of residence for security reasons. Payment for their work was made in cryptocurrency and amounted to around 12,000 rubles per day per person.

At least 5,000 fraudulent calls had reportedly passed through the communication hub daily. Authorities have established the detainees’ involvement in at least 50 criminal cases opened across various regions of Russia.

Searches led to the seizure of communication gateways, laptops with specialised software, routers, mobile phones containing correspondence, more than 3,500 SIM cards, and bank cards.

Criminal cases have been opened on charges of fraud and illegal use of communications equipment. The suspects have been arrested, and efforts are ongoing to identify the organisers of the scheme.

Earlier the same day, authorities reported that scammers had begun sending messages to residential building chat groups about alleged water meter inspections. The fraudsters use special chatbots that imitate official services. Under the pretext of organising meter checks, they attempt to steal login details for accounts on the Gosuslugi government services portal.

By Khagan Isayev