Over nine months, Kazakhstan blocked 5.5 billion tenge as part of efforts to counter cyber fraud. A total of 617 million tenge was voluntarily returned to victims, said Zhandos Suyinbay, head of the Department for Combating Cybercrime at the Ministry of Internal Affairs, at a briefing at the Central Communications Service. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs is cooperating with participants of the National Bank's Anti-Fraud Center to identify suspicious transactions and stop the movement of stolen money. Over nine months, 212,000 incidents were generated in the system. More than 76,000 of them were initiated by internal affairs bodies.
As a result, 4 billion tenge was blocked in senders' accounts, and another 1.5 billion tenge in the accounts of dropers. This term refers to people whose accounts are used to transfer and cash out stolen funds.
According to Suyinbay, the speed of information exchange between banks and police directly affects the ability to preserve and return victims' money. In parallel, the Ministry of Internal Affairs is working on legislative amendments.
"Requirements for issuing consumer loans when applying for online loans and registering SIM cards have been tightened. Just last week, the head of state signed the law we developed on ratification of the Council of Europe Convention against Cybercrime. It will allow prompt interaction and exchange of information with the countries participating in the convention," Suyinbay said.
He added that the draft law on ratification of the UN Convention against Cybercrime has been submitted to the Kurultai for consideration.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs stated that the measures taken have reduced the number of registered internet frauds. The agency will continue work to suppress fraudulent schemes, improve digital literacy and international cooperation.
"We urge citizens to remain vigilant, not to disclose confirmation codes and account access data to strangers, and to immediately contact law enforcement agencies and their bank in case of suspicious calls or transfers," Suyinbay emphasized.