Olga Magomedova, Researcher at the Gaidar Institute's International Best Practices Analysis Department, warned citizens against turning to illegal lenders in a comment for Rossiyskaya Gazeta, pointing out the risks associated with personal data leaks. According to her, “borrowing money from unlicensed financial institutions is dangerous not only because of uncontrolled interest rates, but also because it exposes the borrower to the risk of becoming a victim of ‘illegal debt collection methods.’”
The expert emphasized that “the least obvious risks of turning to illegal lenders are associated with the borrower's voluntary provision of valuable personal data, such as passport details and contact information.” Olga Magomedova explained that this data is “particularly valuable on the black market, as it gives fraudsters greater freedom to choose fraudulent schemes using personal data.” She noted that illegal lenders can use customer data for additional enrichment by selling it to interested parties, which can lead to document fraud, registration of shell companies, and telephone scams. “Therefore, the borrower may not even suspect that the reason for the fraudulent actions committed against them may be access to data that they themselves provided to the lender,” she concluded.