Security1 publisher2 min readPublished
Ukraine votes to make working in a scam call center a seven-to-twelve-year crime
The bill was introduced in 2023 and passed on Wednesday, a week after anti-corruption investigators accused officials in the Prosecutor General's Office of taking bribes to shield call centers from police. It awaits Zelensky's signature.
The Watch · Security desk
What happened
- Organizers and workers convicted under the new articles face seven to 12 years in prison, and the text still needs Zelensky's signature to take effect.
- Investigators allege officials began taking bribes from fraudulent call centers in mid-2025 to shield them from law enforcement, with victims inside Ukraine and abroad.
- A nationwide sweep a month after July's Kyiv takedown produced 411 searches and 94 suspected call center closures in one week.
Compiled by The WatchSomething wrong?How this is made
Why it matters
- capability Prosecutors get a charge that lands on the recruiter and the floor manager, so a case can be built on staffing records instead of on victim statements gathered from other countries.
- exposure The English-speaking staff hired out of the U.S., West Africa and Europe to sit on the phones are inside the seven-to-twelve-year range for the job they were hired to do.
- decision Ukraine's fraud investigators now take warrants and searches to a new prosecutor general while the office they work through is itself part of the bribery case.
- contradiction NABU's case names a friend of Kravchenko among five suspects and Kravchenko denies shielding call centers, so how far the protection reached is still unsettled.
Four roles become crimes in themselves under the bill: setting up a fraudulent call center, running one, working in one, and recruiting people to participate [3]. Using electronic communications to commit fraud, including schemes built on stolen or misused personal and banking data, is carved out as a separate offense [2]. Organizers and workers face seven to 12 years [4].
A recruiter is chargeable for recruiting. That count does not require a traced payment from a named victim, which matters for operations whose victims sit outside Ukraine. Organized groups in Ukraine employ teams of operators who contact potential victims and talk them into transferring money, making bogus investments, or handing over access to their bank accounts [15]. In July, Ukrainian cyber police said they dismantled a Kyiv-based center that stole more than $500,000 from dozens of Americans [12]. Investigators said that operation recruited English-speaking workers, including people from the U.S., West Africa and European countries, who posed as financial advisers and sold victims fictitious assets [13].
Enforcement was already running at volume without the new articles. A month after the Kyiv takedown, police, working with Ukraine's domestic security service and the Prosecutor General's Office, said they carried out 411 searches and shut down 94 suspected fraudulent call centers in a single week [14]. That is roughly 4.4 searches for each center closed [16].
The legislation was first introduced in 2023 and moved only after anti-corruption agencies opened an investigation last week into an alleged criminal network involving officials in the Prosecutor General's Office [6]. According to investigators, officials began collecting bribes from fraudulent call centers in mid-2025 in exchange for shielding their operations from law enforcement, and those centers targeted victims in Ukraine and abroad [7]. NABU has named five suspects [8]. One was described by investigators as a "trusted associate" and friend of Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko [9]. Kravchenko has categorically denied protecting fraudulent call centers and has not been charged [10]. Parliament voted on Monday to remove him and Zelenskyy signed a decree dismissing him; Kravchenko had left the country the day before [11].
The new articles widen who can be charged inside Ukraine. Whether the work stays in Ukraine is a separate question, and the report does not say whether the 94 centers closed in August resumed operating. None of the penalties apply until Zelensky signs [5].
What to watch
- Whether Zelensky signs the bill, and how soon the first charge is brought under the recruiting offense.
- Whether NABU charges Kravchenko, who left Ukraine on Sunday and denies protecting call centers.
- Whether the new prosecutor general sustains the August tempo of 411 searches and 94 closures in a week.