Sberbank exposed fraudsters operating in Yekaterinburg.

      In Yekaterinburg, a verdict was issued for the participants of a group that embezzled credit funds through fictitious borrowers. The crime was uncovered through the joint efforts of the security service of the Ural Bank of Sber and the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Sverdlovsk Region.

      The criminals submitted loan applications to banks from borrowers with "perfect" profiles—people without official employment but with impeccable credit histories and high incomes. The fraud monitoring system at Sber detected suspicious applications, prompting security service employees to begin an investigation.

      They reconstructed the crime: behind the applications with "ideal" data was a scheme involving fictitious borrowers. All the data was handed over to the police, where a criminal case was initiated for large-scale fraud.

      Sber and the regional Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Sverdlovsk Region identified all participants in the scheme, who lived in different regions of the country. The criminals obtained fraudulent loans from commercial banks in the region. The money was embezzled by the criminals, while the "nominal borrowers" were left with a small amount as a reward.

      — Thanks to the timely actions of Sber employees and the cybercrime unit of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the Sverdlovsk Region, it was possible not only to prevent the theft of funds but also to hold the guilty parties accountable: both the organizers and participants in the scheme as fictitious borrowers received actual prison sentences ranging from two to seven years, reported the press secretary of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the Sverdlovsk Region, Valery Gorelykh.

      Earlier, a courier for the fraudsters was detained in Uralmash, who had stolen 500 thousand from a pensioner.