A 74-year-old resident of the Industrial District of Khabarovsk received a call from an unknown person and warned that some scammers had gained access to the woman’s personal account on an information portal, and therefore all her bank accounts could be blocked. In order to protect himself, the man suggested that the pensioner withdraw her savings and transfer them to the specified account. The Khabarovsk woman followed all the instructions of her interlocutor and withdrew four million rubles from her accounts, after which she sent them to the specified details.

The next day, another man contacted the Russian woman, introducing himself as a bank employee. He told her that the attackers had access to her personal data and they placed an advertisement for the sale of her apartment. The unknown person convinced the pensioner that she needed to get rid of her home herself and then transfer the money to a “safe account.” The frightened woman believed the interlocutor and contacted a real estate agency, after which she sold the apartment for eight million rubles. She sent all the proceeds from the transaction to the indicated accounts.

The pensioner realized that she had become a victim of scammers only when she wanted to obtain access to her “safe account” – instead of providing data, the scammers stopped contacting her and blocked her. The total damage caused to the Khabarovsk resident amounted to 12 million rubles. A criminal case was opened into the incident under Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code (“Fraud”). They are looking for the perpetrators and face up to 10 years in prison.

In December, it became known that a resident of Novosibirsk lost her home and took out two loans after a telephone conversation with scammers.