The sensational demand for “escape from Russia” in connection with the mobilization at an incredible speed formed a huge number of fraudsters who organized a black market of services for “departees”. One of the most common offers was fake Schengen visas. However, information security experts on the pages of “Izvestia” warned potential fugitives against the draft – leaving with forged documents is only possible in the bunks for violating the law.
According to experts, fraudsters mostly catch their victims on the darknet and Telegram channels. The main offers are assistance in issuing visas without the presence of the applicant (of course, fake ones), as well as passports of foreign countries. In addition, there are proposals for illegal border crossings.
But fake Schengen among the above is the most common and cheapest service. The average price is $500–800. We remind you that a “legal” Schengen visa with all the complications for Russians is issued for 80 euros. At the same time, “Izvestia” experts evaluated the fraudster’s work for themselves, ordering a “service” in one of the Telegram channels. They asked for $800 for the service, setting a production time of 3-5 days. Interestingly, from that side, they even honestly warned that the document will not be included in the Visa Information System (VIS) of the countries of the Schengen Agreement. That is, as a matter of fact, for such money, “fugitives” are given a “beautiful rendering”, which is a fake.
As experts explained on the pages of the publication, there are conditional chances of leaving Russia with such a visa. But it will be impossible to enter the EU: first of all, the European border guard will check the visa for its presence in the VIS system and recognize the forgery. Moreover, the fugitives were reminded that since 2015, Schengen countries have accepted tourists on biometric visas, and even short-term visas require fingerprinting. Moreover, in many Schengen countries, biometric identification of a person, i.e. data matching, is carried out immediately at the border control of arrival in the country. Moreover, as the experts added, the fugitives are not even in a European prison for such an escape.
“Liability for the use of fake visas depends on the current legislation of the EU and the country where such an incident was recorded. Based on global practice, in the simplest cases, the owner of a fake visa may face a large fine with blacklisting or a lifetime ban on entering the EU, and most importantly, deportation home, where the most serious criminal liability awaits,” the experts explained.
“In the darknet and Telegram channels, there is indeed an increase in the number of offers for visas. They can be divided into two categories. The first is fake visas, that is, blank pieces of paper that are not entered into any databases. With high-quality execution, they may not visually differ from real visas, but this will not help to use them in any way. The second category of announcements is help with the processing of these documents and simplified visa acquisition,” the head of the internet threat analytics department in the Russian Federation explained to “Izvestia”. If the details of the first option are disclosed above, then the second is a seemingly quite standard service that has existed for a long time.
However, fraudulent organizations operate here as well, the expert noted. “Over the past three years, we have recorded more than 500 fake websites of visa centers in different countries. They, in particular, promise to issue documents in a short time without the presence of the applicant, and this is also a fraud. A positive decision to issue a visa without an interview in the current conditions requires the assistance of at least the vice-consul, and he is unlikely to participate in this scam for a share of 30,000 rubles,” the expert said.
Experts explain the speed of reproduction of fraudsters by the fact that those who run away from mobilization are the most “good ground” for them. Most likely, such victims will not go to law enforcement agencies to complain, at most, they will tell about the deception on social networks. And there are already such statements. “One of the users of the darknet told the story that he ordered a passport from another country. Scammers reported that the cost of such a service will be about 100,000 rubles and that the document visually resembles the original as much as possible. In a few days, he received something completely different from what he ordered. The document bore little resemblance to the original, the colors were different, and the photos were black and white instead of color. The user’s request to redo the document was refused, and the swindlers stopped communicating,” Izvestia reported.
At the same time, the experts reminded us that a complete list of documents for obtaining EU citizenship costs about 5–6 thousand euros in Russia, and this procedure is completed through legal offices. From this it is easy to understand that no one will issue a real passport for the amount of 100,000 rubles. But the Russian still easily passed away – if he approached the border post with such an artisanal forgery – he risked “increasing the term” for document fraud. And this is up to three years in prison.