The number of ATM thefts in Russia has increased almost 77-fold in a year.

The Bank of Russia recorded 1764 cases of fraudulent transactions "without opening an account" in the second quarter of 2026. A year earlier, during the same period in 2025, the regulator recorded only 23 such incidents. This is according to the Central Bank's information security incident reporting review.

Scammer tactics and the continuous growth of attacks

In particular, the rise in ATM thefts is occurring against the backdrop of a general shift in attacker strategy. The total number of transactions without customer consent actually decreased from 495,8 to 458,7 in the quarter, while social engineering attacks increased by almost 50%.

Moreover, thefts have been steadily increasing for four consecutive quarters. While 23 cases were recorded in the spring of 2025, 360 were recorded in the summer, 801 in early 2026, and 1764 in the second quarter. As a result, the amount stolen from ATMs increased from 16,5 million to 252,3 million rubles.

Zero return rate and fraud in the SBP

However, banks did not return a single ruble to affected clients in this category—the share of funds reimbursed was zero. By comparison, financial institutions recover 13,3% of stolen funds from bank cards, and 19,5% from e-wallets.

Consequently, a similar situation is observed in the Faster Payments System, where fraudsters stole 2,74 billion rubles. In most cases, victims are not hacked, but rather persuaded to voluntarily withdraw or transfer funds. Ultimately, victims were able to recover only 2,1% of the stolen funds.