Russia Cracks Down on Unregistered Crypto Exchanges in Scam Crackdown

Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) and Interior Ministry have cracked down on nine unregistered crypto exchange points, detaining over 20 employees and couriers.

The operation targeted alleged accomplices in large-scale telephone scams that directed victims to convert their savings into cryptocurrency and transfer the funds to scammers' wallets.

The scammers used Ukrainian call centers to direct victims through the process, often with step-by-step instructions. Once the money was converted into crypto, recovery became more difficult, as the exchange desk provided a point where proceeds from conventional telephone scams entered the crypto system.