Dimitru Budianschi, Chairman of the Administrative Board of the National Commission of Financial Markets (NCFM), emphasized that it is not only about TUX: these platforms are constantly appearing and disappearing and the fight against them requires comprehensive measures, including regulation, deterrence and financial education.
“It’s not just about TUX. There are several other platforms besides it that are spreading through social media. You get messages all the time saying “Here’s a platform – if you want to make some money, come on in!”. There are about 8-9 of them. We mentioned them in the official report. We can block a platform today and the risk is reduced for a while, but the next day another one appears. It already exists somewhere, it is just not yet popularized on our territory. The task requires comprehensive measures of all bodies, including NCFM: deterrence, regulation and financial education. We are moving in this direction, primarily through harmonization with EU legislation,” Budianski said at a hearing in Parliament.
Viorel Cerneutianu, head of the Inspectorate General of Police, said that the number of criminal cases on online platforms is growing, most of the schemes come from abroad, and more comprehensive international work is needed.
“The number of criminal cases registered in this field has increased from 450 in 2023 to 950 this year. Most forms of organizing these actions come from outside the territory of Moldova. A much more comprehensive work with the states from where such phenomena and criminal schemes are registered is needed,” Cerneutianu said.
Regarding TUX, he said that the criminal case was initiated under articles on tax evasion, illegal business activity and money laundering. “At the moment the police are receiving – either redirected or directly – certain fraud complaints, which are already being dealt with through other channels as well. In total, 13 applications have been filed in Moldova by persons who consider themselves victims of this process (TUX – ed.). Two of them have already withdrawn their claims. It should be understood that participation in these actions, regardless of whether people were victims or involved someone else, is often qualified as a crime, because by acting on the pyramid principle or conducting pyramidal activities, they are already violating the legislation”.
The police chief also said that Moldova needs to develop an information plan for citizens on what are the risks from fraudulent platforms, as well as “a mechanism for faster and more effective reporting of such platforms and, of course, their blocking.
Andrian Munteanu, head of the Service for Prevention and Combating Money Laundering, emphasized that fraudsters use alternative payment channels and cryptocurrency, and there is no control over such operations in Moldova.
He said that there has been an increase in suspicious transactions detected by banking institutions and payment service providers.
“For example, in 2023, 12 alerts to law enforcement agencies were registered, in 2024 – 45, and already this year until October – 112. All of them are related to suspicions of online fraud and scams. These suspicions come from analyzing online transactions. The platforms usually advertise themselves through social media. They do not have the status of a legal entity – they only provide a platform behind which real persons hide, and payments do not go to the legal entity or to the operator of the platform – payments go to intermediaries, individuals.”
He also noted that most often the persons involved in such schemes are located outside of Moldova.
Dorian Istratii, PAS deputy, noted the low financial literacy of citizens and suggested creating an educational course:
“It is obvious that we do not have a sufficiently developed financial culture. We will definitely make recommendations to the Ministry of Education and Research to create a financial education course in schools”.
