The latest database of Bank of Russia transactions on sale on the black market has turned out to be a fake. Bank specialists failed to find one correct piece of information for the data supposedly from the first quarter of 2005. It is the first such incident when an entirely fake database has been used to take advantage of the huge demand for such products.
In mid-February the Russian business daily Vedomosti reported on offers it received to buy a leaked database containing information on payments made at the bank's cash settlement centers for the first quarter of 2005. Now the same newspaper has reported that the database being sold on the black market is a fake. Experts from the Bank of Russia failed to find one correct payment on the product being touted as the real thing. It should be noted that mistakes and ommissions are a regular feature of such illegal products, but it is the first time the specialists have come across a completely false database.
The newspaper's journalists received an offer to buy the database earlier this year and even talked to the sellers over the telephone. They bought a copy for approximately $140 and passed it on to the Bank of Russia for checks.
“The details presented in [the database] have absolutely nothing to do with the Bank of Russia and have nothing in common with the bank's databases," an employee from the bank's external and public relations department said. “For example, in that database there is a classification code for businesses and organisations which is not shown on any databases of Central Bank transactions." The bank representative believes the criminals selling the database have simply gathered information from a variety of sources unrelated to the bank's activities and passed them off as Bank of Russia data.
The supposed database has no information that corresponds with any transactions in the 'payments made' column. According to experts at the InfoWatch analytical centre, that can easily be explained due to the fact that even if other information can be generated from earlier databases, it is impossible to fill in that column with the correct information by chance.
It can be concluded that the criminals simply decided to take advantage of the high demand for such databases on the black market. Judging by a recent statement by a representative of the Central Bank of Russia, all channels of possible data leaks have been sealed, leaving the criminal fraternity little option but to create their own fictitious database.
