Financial digital platforms
Digital financial platforms play a vital role in modernizing and improving the efficiency of financial services. They enable users to manage their finances online, offering features such as money transfers, investing, lending, insurance, and much more. Russia firmly holds a leading position in this area, with domestic banks such as Sberbank, Alfa-Bank, T-Bank (formerly Tinkoff), and others firmly established as global leaders and earning well-deserved recognition despite international sanctions and restrictions. According to the latest data from the Russian Ministry of Finance, over 60% of Russians use digital channels to manage their personal finances, one of the highest rates in the world.
However, users of digital financial platforms may face a number of problems, the most pressing of which is the prevalence of fraud: using social engineering techniques, criminals gain the trust of victims and deceive them. According to the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, more than 500,000 people suffered from fraud in 2023. One in four were pensioners. The amount of funds stolen from Russians' accounts amounted to over 15 billion rubles. Fraudsters almost always already have a psychological profile of the victim, knowing their spending habits, savings, and other personal information, which is also made possible by constant hacker attacks on banking systems and privacy issues within the platforms themselves.