Tashkent law enforcement authorities uncovered an illegal call center where 23 foreign citizens were living without permission. Three of them are suspected of illegally buying and selling crypto assets worth about 330 million soums (over $27,000).
Fraudulent call centers pose a direct threat to citizens' savings, and a buyer of digital assets from an unlicensed seller has no protection whatsoever in the event of fraud. Strict control, by contrast, benefits legitimate platforms and banks: with fewer gray intermediaries, some customers may move to them.
A bribe to an inspector and 80 phones: how the call center was found
The fraud-suspect call center participants were operating in a private house in Tashkent's Yakkasaray district. A prevention inspector noticed one of them as he was leaving the building, which according to documents was listed as empty.
The man brought up changing the property's category and offered the inspector a $1,000 bribe. The law enforcement officer refused and reported the bribery attempt, after which a raid was conducted at the house.
Police found 23 foreign citizens there who were in Uzbekistan without permission and living four to five people to a room. Officers from the Tashkent Main Internal Affairs Directorate's cybercrime unit seized 80 mobile phones, 21 laptops, six Wi-Fi routers and 22 passports.
Three foreigners, it turned out, had repeatedly bought and sold cryptocurrency through online exchanges without a license. Their transactions totaled at least 27,900 USDT, or about 329.6 million soums. A criminal case has been opened under Part 2 of Article 278-8 of Uzbekistan's Criminal Code (violation of legislation on crypto asset circulation), and the investigation is ongoing.
Why Uzbekistan's authorities are strengthening protection against cyber fraudsters
This is not the first such case in the capital this autumn: in mid-October, the State Security Service exposed a group that, posing as banks, extracted personal data from citizens and took out online loans in their names. The scheme's participants converted the funds into cryptocurrency and moved them abroad through shell companies, an amount equivalent to $8 million.
Personal data is the main resource of fraudsters who call posing as banks, and its protection concerns Minister of Digital Technologies Sherzod Shermatov. The head of the Ministry of Digital Technologies did not confirm the report of a leak of data on 27 million citizens, but warned that there are no guarantees against such incidents and urged that cybersecurity spending be budgeted alongside investments in artificial intelligence.
Foreigners among the occupants of the house in Yakkasaray district are a sign that such schemes often extend beyond the borders of a single country. On October 9, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev proposed that CIS countries create a joint contact center that would respond promptly to cross-border cybercrimes.
Cryptalist analysis: The case demonstrates a systemic shift in Uzbekistan's crypto market regulation: the authorities are moving from targeted inspections to criminal prosecution of unlicensed circulation, which increases pressure on the shadow P2P segment. For legitimate operators this is a positive signal — the displacement of gray intermediaries redistributes liquidity in favor of licensed platforms and reduces reputational risks for the industry in the region.