This year, border guards have found more than 1,600 invalid documents, as well as 860 forged documents and more than 330 illegal groups.
This is stated in the report of the State Border Guard Service, Ukrinform reports.
‘In 11 months of 2024, border guards found more than 1,600 invalid documents, as well as 860 forged ones, which is 5 per cent more than in the same period last year,’ the report says.
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According to the State Border Guard Service’s operational and investigative units, more than 630 pre-trial investigations have been launched under Article 358 ‘Forgery of documents, seals, stamps and forms, sale or use of forged documents, seals, stamps’.
The SBGS notes that the operational units of the State Border Guard Service record a significant number of fraudulent schemes involving men of military age who try to illegally leave Ukraine. ‘Employment abroad for men. Documents, support, guarantee’ – this is the concept that fraudsters use to profit from men. The criminals rely on the fact that their deceived clients will not sue law enforcement officers for fear of mobilisation and liability for violating the law.
Usually, the victim of the scam admits that he or she has been deceived only after being detained by law enforcement, and even then, not always.
Another fraudulent scheme also promises guaranteed border crossing, mostly offered through anonymous channels on the Internet. The scammers claim that they have the capabilities and arrangements to provide guaranteed transportation outside Ukraine. They ask for about 7-10,000 dollars for their services. Couriers transport clients to the border regions, hide them, and before the expected moment of crossing the border, they claim that circumstances have changed and that they urgently need to pay extra.
The SBGS notes that in their work, the operational and investigative units of the State Border Guard Service cooperate with other law enforcement agencies, including cyber police. Border guards have information that some of the fraudulent schemes are organised by criminals serving sentences in prisons. After receiving the money, the fraudsters either disappear from the network or provide their clients with a fictitious route across the border.
The SBGS noted that organisers of smuggling channels often work in a similar way. More than 330 of them have been exposed this year.
As Ukrinform reported, since the beginning of martial law, more than 700 criminal groups have been exposed who promised people assistance in illegal border crossings.
Photo: State Border Guard Service of Ukraine
Source: Border guards have already detected over 330 illegal groups this year
