Adrian Gheorghitae
According to the ranking of the World Cybercrime Index, published in April 2024, Moldova ranks 15th in the world (out of 97 countries assessed) in terms of international experts’ perception of the level of cybercrime prevalence.
The ranking in the top 20 indicates a very worrying situation related to the generation or facilitation of cyber attacks. This ranking reflects not only a country’s susceptibility to being used as an operational platform for transnational criminal groups, but also its structural vulnerability in cybercrime prevention, investigation and deterrence systems.
The first steps were taken when the 2024 amendments to the Cybercrime Prevention and Control Act came into effect in the fall of that year. Heads of units specialized in preventing and combating cybercrime in the Ministry of the Interior and the Information and Security Service were empowered to order the suspension of access to web pages or the removal of online content at the source.
According to a briefing note from the respective agencies, “135 criminal cases of cybercrime were filed in 2024, compared to 167 cases filed in 2023. Most of the acts are infringement on the financial assets of citizens.” And there were 77 cases involving fraudulent computer schemes, compared to 116 in 2023, when there was a spike.
Law enforcers also report an increase in online crimes involving the abuse of minors through the distribution of child pornography via file-sharing and social media, with 32 such criminal cases reported in 2024, according to the police report.
Law enforcers do not share information about the amount of blocked online content and suppressed activities. All the more so because cybercrimes have recently been actively involving political and anti-money laundering components, unregulated crypto-market and derivatives, phishing and many other things that cannot even be tracked in a timely manner. Not to mention prevention.
According to Vladimir Rusnak, vice chairman of the National Commission on Financial Market, it is necessary to clearly understand the difference, firstly, between legal brokers and remote access intermediaries, which are not authorized in the country, regulated activity and unregulated. Secondly, the responsibility for making decisions on financial matters lies, first of all, on the person who decides to risk his money without having financial knowledge and trusting promises of quick money, as it became on the TUX platform.
“Our mandate to protect the rights of consumers of financial services applies only to the regulated capital market, intermediaries operating on it, authorized crowdfunding platforms and other investment instruments contained in the legal field,” says Vladimir Rusnak. – The regulator simply informs about detected violations, and it is up to everyone to decide whether or not to contact one or another market operator. When it comes to cross-border fraud, there are no reliable defense mechanisms in any country. Foreign colleagues can also act ex post facto, although they can make official declarations of possible danger in advance and have the best technology to stop such crimes.
NCFM warns the population about the spread of false information in social networks about the suspension of the TUX platform and the possibility of recovering investments through international structures. The Commission urges citizens to obtain information only from official and verified sources, and to immediately inform the authorities in case of suspicious or potentially fraudulent messages. The National Investigation Inspectorate (INI) has opened a criminal investigation into suspicious activity on the TUX platform.
The NCFM took the next step to protect investments in derivatives. The Parliament, at its request, adopted amendments to the Capital Market Law to fill the regulatory vacuum on the promotion of derivatives, including under the guise of education as a means of marketing derivatives.
In the territory of Moldova, it is a crime and punishable under the Criminal Code to “market and/or distribute to non-professional clients derivative financial instruments traded through an electronic trading platform, directly or indirectly providing for a leverage effect established depending on the underlying asset, in the following ways:
(a) Providing any type of remuneration to existing customers who bring in new or potential customers or recommend to others the derivatives offered or the services provided in connection with those instruments;
(b) Giving gifts or bonuses to a customer or providing other benefits where the actual provision of such benefits is contingent upon the execution of transactions in allocated derivative financial instruments;
c) using external call center providers to call customers or potential customers;
(d) The use of any software product designed, developed or sold by vendors to profit directly or indirectly, in whole or in part, from losses incurred by customers in the distribution of these products or the provision of related services;
(e) Providing any third party directly or indirectly involved in the distribution with profits, directly or indirectly, derived in whole or in part from losses incurred by customers in the distribution of these products or the provision of related services;
(f) Providing the necessary funds for transactions by automatically charging the credit card without the customer’s consent;
(g) using training and education services, social media platforms, radio and television stations to promote or distribute financial instruments referred to in this Part.”.
If the NCFM becomes suspicious, it has the right to publish alerts directly identifying persons and web pages that are not authorized at the national level to provide these types of “investment services” and to require advertisers to stop distributing relevant advertisements. Fines from 10 thousand to 60 thousand conventional units depending on the severity and other circumstances. After the legislative amendments were issued, the Moldovan company Double Case, which provided business trainings on Forex trading, curtailed its activities in this direction.
“Despite the fact that investment options for investing in Moldova are not yet impressive, they are based on a solid legal framework designed to protect investors and consumers of financial services,” says Adrian Gheorghita, NCFM vice-chairman. Apart from bank deposits, SS, municipal and corporate bonds, listed shares on the stock market, some of which show a price increase of more than 100% in the last two years, and finally crowdfunding platforms, we will soon have other investment opportunities, the vice chairman believes. With the launch of the new stock exchange, financial instruments will diversify noticeably.
The European Commission recommended Moldova to “strengthen the legal framework and institutional capacity to assess risks and fight cybercrime. The fight against cybercrime will be taken to a new level from next year under the National Crime Control Program for 2026-2030, which the government approved last week. Institutional and technical capacity to prevent and combat cybercrime will be continuously strengthened, the government promises, and sharing information with other nations will help counter common transnational threats.
