Correction (14 July 2026). This article was published describing Ungheni as “an ageing district”. National Bureau of Statistics data disprove that: people over 60 make up 24.5% of the district’s population — below the national average of 25.8%; of the country’s 33 territorial units, Ungheni ranks 32nd by the share of older residents. The absolute figure (18,259 people over 60) remains real and important, but the comparative label was wrong. We have corrected the headline and the text.
You will still be able to buy a SIM card as easily as before — but to use it, you will have to prove your identity. The Government has approved a measure under which prepaid SIM and eSIM cards will be activated only on the basis of an identity document, according to the Government’s statement. The aim: to cut into the anonymity on which telephone scams rely.
What changes, concretely
The sale of cards remains free. The difference comes at activation: an identity document will be needed, either at the point of sale or remotely, digitally. Already-active cards do not need to be re-registered — the rule applies only to numbers activated after it takes effect, and operators have 12 months to adapt their systems. The Government also gives an assurance about privacy: there is no access to the content of calls, messages or location, only to identification data.
A prepaid card can be activated without confirming identity, and this anonymity is used in illegal activities and makes it harder to identify the perpetrators.
Daniella Misail-Nichitin, Minister of Internal Affairs
Why: an industry of hundreds of millions
The measure did not come out of nowhere. The losses caused by telephone and online scams have risen explosively: from over 40 million lei in 2023, to over 130 million in 2024 and over 272 million in 2025, according to data presented by the General Police Inspectorate in Parliament. In the first five months of 2026 alone, about 1,767 cases were recorded, with damage of around 157 million lei.
Most often, scammers pose as bank employees (almost 30% of cases) or offer bogus “investments” (over 17%). And the typical victim has a clear profile: the most exposed are people over 66, and almost three quarters of those tricked are women.
A target district
This is where the story lands in Ungheni — and not for the better. The district is ageing and emptying: its population has fallen by almost 23% in eleven years, and people over 60 are now about a quarter of residents. Add migration: very many elderly people are left alone, with their children and grandchildren abroad. This is exactly the ground on which the cruelest scheme works — the call in which a “relative” has caused an accident and urgently needs money.
And it is not a hypothesis. In Ungheni, a 55-year-old woman lost more than 436,000 lei in an online “investment” scheme, and the cash was physically collected, in town, by two couriers later detained by police — a case we reported. How many such cases the Ungheni district has exactly is not publicly known; the figures are reported at national level.
What you can do
A few simple rules, repeated by the police, are worth as much as the measure itself:
- Any “guaranteed gain” or “investment” offered over the phone is, almost certainly, a trap.
- Do not install remote-access apps (such as AnyDesk, TeamViewer) at the request of a “consultant” or “banker”, and do not dictate codes received by SMS.
- A real bank never asks for passwords, codes or “verification” transfers over the phone.
- If you have been tricked, call 112 immediately or notify the Ungheni Police Inspectorate — quickly, because the money moves in minutes.
How much the measure actually helps
Honestly: identifying cards will not stop the phenomenon on its own. More and more calls come from abroad, over the internet, with spoofed numbers — those a Moldovan rule does not reach. Questions also remain about who keeps the database of identities and how it is protected. The measure is a necessary step, but it is a brick, not a wall.
The national fact comes from the Government’s statement; the data on the scale of fraud were presented by the General Police Inspectorate at parliamentary hearings. The local case was reported earlier on the basis of the Police statement. The demographic data are from the National Bureau of Statistics (2025 — provisional). There are no public figures on the number of frauds strictly at the level of the Ungheni district; we will request them from the Ungheni Police Inspectorate.