Who is most vulnerable to cyber fraud: survey by Bank of Russia
In 2025, women faced various types of financial fraud less often than men. However, they acted imprudently under the influence of fraudsters more often, which led to the theft of funds. The Bank of Russia received these data through an annual survey of nearly 460,000 people from all Russian regions.
Phone calls remained the primary channel of communication between fraudsters and individuals. Furthermore, the number of fraudulent acts through the use of phishing links, fake QR codes, and malware increased. The latter method resulted in financial losses twice as often as phone calls.
Women more often became victims of phone calls from swindlers and, as a result, more often than men disclosed codes from SMS messages and push notifications to them. Men were more frequently attacked through web-based messengers and scammed on websites and in software apps. They more often than women downloaded malware and disclosed personal and financial data.
Most victims transferred money to the scammers themselves. The average loss was up to ₽20,000. The largest proportion of respondents who lost more than ₽1 million as a result of fraud were pensioners.
According to the survey findings, 29% of respondents experienced cyber fraud in 2025, which was five percentage points less than in 2024. A third of those who had lost money failed to follow financial security rules while contacting the scammers. The number of victims who reported the theft of money to both their banks and the police rose to almost 40%.