Ukraine home to about 100,000 phone scammers targeting Russians — senior diplomat

MOSCOW, June 9. /TASS/. Approximately 100,000 telephone scammers targeting Russian citizens are active in Ukraine, a senior Russian diplomat said.

"Back in 2024, there were around 1,500 phone scams in Ukraine. The number of schemes targeting Russian nationals has increased threefold from 2021-2023. And they are mostly operating from Dnepropetrovsk with about 500 organizations, Kiev, Odessa, Lvov, Kharkov, and Ivano-Frankovsk," Pyotr Ilyichev, director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Department for New Challenges and Threats, said at the 19th meeting of chiefs of the head offices of counterterrorism units of Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) member states and national bodies coordinating efforts to combat terrorism and extremism. According to him, approximately 100,000 Ukrainian citizens are involved in the schemes.