"Even school students are now selling their bank cards," says a drops manager about schemes, law enforcement, and restrictions.

The National Bank began noticing abnormal activity regarding "drops" in the fall of 2023. According to the regulator's estimates, various schemes involving "money mules" processed up to 200 billion UAH monthly.

To combat "drops," the NBU introduced extensive restrictions on money transfers that affect all Ukrainians. In October 2024, it set a limit on transfers from card to card at 150,000 UAH per month.

Two months later, the regulator "facilitated" banks to agree to further limit their clients' transfers – to amounts exceeding 100,000 UAH per month, while for high-risk clients without verified income sources – 50,000 UAH.

Were these restrictions effective? "If we look at what happened after the introduction of the 150,000 UAH limit per month, we did not lose anything from it," sums up Maxim, a "manager" of the network dealing with "drops."

EP had been trying to contact the organizers of "drop" schemes for a long time. However, finding them and, most importantly, talking on record proved to be a challenging task.

Eventually, the conversation with Maxim also took place under complete anonymity. The guy communicated with journalists via Zoom, using a program that alters his voice. He was dressed in a dark hoodie, with the hood covering his head, a balaclava obscuring his face, and large dark ski goggles.

Despite the secrecy, the interviewee speaks quite confidently. It seems that neither the NBU's restrictions nor potential problems with law enforcement scare him. "We are the people who always stay in the shadows," he explains.

Where do "drops" come from? How much do their services cost? Do Russian funds flow through the networks of "money mules"? And are the actions of the National Bank effective against such schemes?

On typical schemes, finding "drops," and "clients"

— Tell us about yourself: how old are you, which city are you from, what is your education, and what have you done before?

— My name is Maxim, I'm from the city of Dnipro, and I'm 24 years old. I have incomplete higher education. At one point, I decided to drop out of university and pursue other things.

— Who would you have become if you hadn't dropped out?

— I studied at DNU (Oles Honchar Dnipro National University) in international relations. At some point, I enjoyed earning unofficially, which is why I decided to leave my studies. The prospect of working for someone else didn't interest me, so I started my own business.

— Are you familiar with other people who, like you, are involved in "drops"?

— Yes, with some of them.

— What is the average profile of people involved in "drops"? Education, residence, age, social status.

— People like me can be found in any city in Ukraine. It's not particularly difficult now. Our area of activity has flourished over the past three years.

— What happened three years ago that caused your area of activity to "start flourishing"?

— With the full-scale invasion, various things started happening with Binance (a cryptocurrency exchange service – EP) and cryptocurrency exchanges. This began to develop actively in Ukraine, thus creating demand for our services.

— How are Binance and cryptocurrencies related to "dropping"?

— It all comes down to the limits that banks set. When people realize that their own card limits are insufficient to process money, they start thinking about where to get an account opened in someone else's name to gain additional limits and opportunities.

— Do most of your clients use your services to transfer money abroad?

— No. They use it for various purposes. It can be "scam" (online fraud). I also started with small "scams" at one point.

Someone "drives traffic" (also known as arbitrage or attracting users to a target webpage online – EP) and needs to process large volumes of money. Some simply acquire cards for money laundering. Others obtain cards for crypto: grey, white, black – it doesn't matter.

— How does a typical scheme work, and what is your role in it?

— Currently, my role is organizational. Five years ago, we used to search for people who wanted to sell their cards and earn a certain percentage in return. We were in the "plus" because we sold these cards.

Over time, we developed. Initially, there was advertising on old forums; in "telegrams" (Telegram – EP), advertising was just beginning. Later, we integrated into large Telegram channels and eventually created our own. We found people responsible for different stages of work. There are runners who can approach someone, say, in a parking lot under a shopping center, at school, anywhere.

Even schoolchildren are engaged in this now. Anyone, anywhere can sell their card. We look for opportunities in this.

— A person sells you their card. What happens next?

— If a person didn't have a card before, we take a clean phone number, a clean "device." If needed, we help the "drop" go through all verifications, identifications, and obtaining cards, telling them which cards to get.

After that, the complete set goes to the clients. We either give clients access or they link their numbers, depending on the price of the service and what exactly they wanted to receive.

— How many "drops" participate in the schemes?

— It’s always more profitable to buy in bulk, so we've had cases where a batch of 30 "drops" came in, and we successfully "flipped" it. We dealt with some serious clients who bought a large number of cards from us at once. Therefore, we had to onboard a lot at once. Definitely more than 30.

— Are you referring to 30 cards or people?

— People. A single "drop" can have a large number of cards. It depends on the client's wishes regarding which banks they need.

— You find a person who has cards, hypothetically, in five banks. You take these cards and process money through them?

— We don’t process anything. Runners find the person. Suppose they already have a card in the bank. This is a good option because the card is already "warmed up": the person has purchased products, made payments, spent money.

This is always a big plus because banks observe how a person uses the card; it’s not just a large sum going in and out. After all, this can lead to blocks, and we would have to deal with additional "headaches."

Next, we explain to the "drop" what needs to be changed: phone number, email, and so on. If it requires a visit to the bank branch, we sometimes even take them ourselves. It varies from bank to bank.

Once we’ve linked our phone numbers, accessed it from our device, confirmed that the card exists and is not blocked, we sometimes test it. Hypothetically, we enter 10 UAH and then exit. After that, the card is ready for transfer to the client.

Depending on what services the client wants to receive, we provide them. Sometimes we simply give them the password (which comes as an SMS in Viber or Telegram). We give them full confirmation so they can log in and verify that they have the user account (of the cardholder – EP).

We no longer practice sending via "Nova Poshta" as before because all banks now have virtual cards. Everything happens remotely. "Telegram" is our main platform; all communication occurs there.

The client rents the card, for example, which costs one amount.