Criminal and legal counteraction to crimes in the sphere of turnover of means of payments is provided within the framework of the implementation of the entire package of measures to counteract economic crime. The peculiarity of the criminal law norms regulating the sphere in question is the use of categories in them that are regulated by other branches of law, which requires the law enforcement officer to identify significant signs of the corpus delicti. This article is devoted to topical issues of criminal law protection of the turnover of means of payments. The features and characteristics of the subject of the crime under Article 187 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation are analyzed. A critical analysis of the construction of the criminal law norm is given. The author comes to the conclusion that changes in the disposition of Article 187 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, due to the improvement of industry legislation, cause certain difficulties in law enforcement practice. This is largely due to the innovative nature of public relations, the protection of which is provided by this criminal law norm, which have not yet received appropriate comprehensive legal regulation. Formulated in art. 187 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the legal mechanism as a whole makes it possible to counteract modern threats in this area, at the same time, in order to ensure clarity, clarity, un ambiguity of this legal norm, it is advisable to make appropriate adjustments to it.