In the 11th month of 2025, cybercriminals stole nearly 2 trillion from the bank cards of Uzbeks. In an interview with Kun.uz, a 22-year-old convict serving a sentence for such a crime spoke about the system behind cybercrimes, how people are deceived, and why this “empire” is still alive.
Cybercrime is more than just fraud, it’s an underground industry with hierarchy, roles and internal rules. People there don’t know each other, they don’t know where they are, but they work on the bank cards and personal data of thousands of people.
“It was like an empire”
The 22-year-old prisoner interviewed by Kun.uz said that he was interested in programming and was a member of one of these groups for several years from the age of 16.
“If I’m not mistaken, it was 2022, a video for our group of scammers like us – who make money from plastic the link they threw If I enterSubjective” project. They came to our group to warn people, studied everything and explained everything about our work.
In the group, we created phishing sites of various applications that were popular at that time, and we used to bait people. Money was withdrawn from the cards using fraudulent methods such as “money won” and “money is being given”. People believed that they would write down their card numbers and give their money without knowing that they would get money. There were about 400 people in the group, including 8 administrators (leaders), the rest were ordinary workers – workers, “machines”. We created a bot, and from that bot, the link was automatically given. Workers used to cheat people with those links. Scammers used to come to us when they entered their card details on the site. We used to enter the card and carry out operations. We used to withdraw money, take this money to a safe place or abroad. It was like an empire.”
The personal information of thousands of people is in the hands of fraudsters
He says the main weapon of cybercriminals: people’s gullibility and carelessness about personal information.
“People send their personal information through the links created in the bot. This information enters our database. The information that falls into this reserve is sold. There are such closed groups, which are accessed through a special offer. They sell people’s personal information. There are 37-38 million people in Uzbekistan, of which there are up to 500 thousand people’s information. You can take and use what you want.
There were countless casualties from us. It didn’t stop even after I stopped. It has been coming non-stop for four years. There is no way to stop this thing, because as soon as I stop, there is something else than me. Or if he stops, there are others, there are a lot of people working. The only way to stop this is for people to be aware, not to believe. If people do not provide their information, their cards will never be debited.”
“I am paying with my life”
“At that time, I may have been having fun with money. However, I did not think that they needed the money for something. Now my conscience is troubled. I returned the money to the owners as much as possible. I am paying with my life for what I did at that time. Someone earns money by doing black work, and someone earns money by doing mental work. I earned money – in exchange for my life, I earned money by sacrificing my life. It was a street walker. I can’t change my day. Longing torments a person. When money blinds a person’s eyes, then nothing is visible.
Maybe they cursed me, that’s why I’m sitting here. I don’t know what the answer will be tomorrow. Apart from this answer, I am afraid that my family members will be cursed.”
