Yekaterinburg Woman's Credit Card Emptied, Now Faces 800,000 Ruble Debt

Yekaterinburg resident Ksenia Shamrai suddenly lost 700,000 rubles (approximately $9,300 at current rates) from her credit card. She claims that someone transferred the money to an unknown man in Moscow. He, in turn, stated that he did not conduct any transactions or receive any funds, but instead found himself with blocked accounts. We explain in order how it all happened and explore why such a situation could occur.

All the Money Vanished Overnight

In August 2025, Ksenia obtained a credit card from UralSib Bank with a limit of 700,000 rubles (approx. $9,300). She planned to spend this money on dental treatment and veneers, but did not get the chance.

On 24 September, the client received a notification that the limit on her credit card had changed from 700,000 to 0 rubles. This alarmed her, and a couple of days later, after recovering from anesthesia following an operation, she decided to block the card. When the girl opened the bank«s app, she received two messages that her personal account had been accessed from other devices. As the reason for blocking, Ksenia indicated theft of the card.

Four days later, the bank closed her access to the app due to suspicious operations conducted without her consent. After that, a call came from a security service employee. He said that on the night of 29 September, there were several debits from Ksenia«s credit card, and he named the details of the person whose account received the money. Then the caller asked the Yekaterinburg woman from which device she had logged into online banking.

His questions seemed suspicious to Ksenia, she interrupted the conversation and called back to UralSib«s hotline herself. From the bank employee, the client learned that her card was indeed blocked, but to the question of whether there were any debits, she received a negative answer.

Then she went to the bank branch on Rosa Luxemburg Street and asked for a card statement. The printout showed that transfers had indeed occurred—several operations went through SBP (System for Fast Payments). In total, 696,989 rubles (approx. $9,300) leaked from Ksenia«s card. They were credited to the account of Alexei Bortkevich. Ksenia does not know this person.

The client asked the bank to look into the situation and return the debited money to the credit card, close it, and provide a statement—but she was refused.

The girl turned to the police, where a criminal case was initiated under the article on theft. The Yekaterinburg UMVD clarified that the case is still under investigation. Also, the Ural woman filed a lawsuit against the bank and demanded that the debt on the credit card and the accrued interest (with which the debt amount has already increased to 800,000 rubles, approx. $10,600) be declared invalid, the contract terminated, and the account closed.

According to Ksenia, no representatives from the company appeared at the first hearing. In the records of the Academic District Court, it is noted that the hearing was postponed to 9 February.

In response to a request to comment on the situation, the press service of UralSib Bank told E1.RU that transfers from Ksenia«s card were confirmed with one-time codes, which are prohibited from being disclosed to outsiders.

«The bank conducted an internal investigation, which confirmed that the operations were carried out by the client in authorized sessions using remote banking services. One-time codes were sent to the client to confirm all actions he performed, these codes were used in confirming the operations without violations,» UralSib reported.

They added that according to service rules, the client is obliged to keep secret from outsiders the code words, passwords, cards and details received from the bank, as well as PIN codes.

«They say that either I did it myself, or I violated security measures. But my question is: how did I violate them? I simply logged into the bank»s official page. I didn«t tell anyone any codes from SMS, didn»t click on any suspicious links. I just logged into the bank«s official page and blocked the card—that»s all I did,« Ksenia responded.

«I Was Cut Off from Life»

From Ksenia«s card statement, it follows that the money was credited to the account of one Alexei Bortkevich. We managed to contact him. The man lives in Moscow, and he learned about Ksenia from Yekaterinburg only after all his accounts were suddenly blocked. The man told E1.RU about the situation from his side.

In late September 2025 (that is, around the time when the money disappeared from Ksenia«s card), Alexei bought a television on installments at a tech store in the city of Zhukovsky. According to the buyer, the installment plan was issued to him by UralSib Bank.

«I downloaded the app from the bank»s website to pay the installments. After that, on 3 October, the Central Bank blocked all my cards. On 22 October, I visited the bank office, and I was informed that operations were conducted on my account without my knowledge. Office employees took my phone for examination and concluded that the app was downloaded from a fraudulent site. Now I have no access to banking services,« shared the Muscovite.

The client made inquiries to the bank itself, the regulator, and the Yekaterinburg police.

«I wrote to them that if a criminal case has been initiated, if there are any claims against me, let me explain the situation. Why was I cut off from life? The police told me that my status in the criminal case is not specified. The bank did not inform me of either the essence of the claims or the timelines for considering my case,» Alexei said.

In late October, the Muscovite wrote an appeal to the Prosecutor General«s Office with a request to conduct an inspection. The response came from the Bank of Russia. There, citing data from UralSib, they told him that he received the money as a result of unlawful actions.

«I am offered to return the amount to the payer by applying to the bank with a statement refusing the credit, but judging by the account statements provided to me, the funds have already been withdrawn by third parties,» added Alexei.

In the bank, they explained to us that restrictions on this client«s cards and accounts were introduced at the request of law enforcement agencies.

«Unfortunately, there are currently no grounds for lifting these restrictions,» added UralSib.

In the end, both Ksenia and Alexei were left alone with their debts from nowhere—they no longer hope for help from the bank.

Earlier, we told a similar story that happened with a resident of Krasnouralsk. He received 700,000 rubles (approx. $9,300) from a fraud victim to his card. The difference between this story and the case of Ksenia and Alexei is that there, the man himself provided the criminals with his account details. Now he will have to return the stolen money to the deceived woman.

Read our analysis on who droppers are (money mules in fraud schemes). All materials on how fraudsters deceive Ural residents are collected in a special section.