In one day, scammers robbed Sevastopol residents of 2 million rubles

In just one day, five victims of these fraudulent schemes contacted the district departments of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the city of Sevastopol. The total amount of damage caused to the victims amounted to more than 2 million rubles.

Under the pretext of protecting a bank account, three local residents transferred a total of about 1,800,000 rubles to scammers. The first victim, a 47-year-old woman working as a school cleaner, transferred 290 thousand rubles taken on credit to the scammers. The scammers, communicating with her in one of the popular instant messengers, convinced her that her savings were in danger and they needed to be urgently transferred to a «safe account». In the second case, a 69-year-old pensioner fell for the scammers’ tricks, transferring almost 14 thousand rubles to accounts controlled by the scammer. The third victim of deception under this scheme was a 40-year-old employee of a medical institution. The woman, having believed the strangers who called, lost 1,500,000 rubles— the press service of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs in Sevastopol reported.

The scammers, posing as mobile operators, also deceived two more local residents. Under the pretext of extending a mobile phone contract, the fraudsters lured more than 130 thousand rubles. Working according to this scheme, they usually insist that they will disconnect the user’s SIM card if the user does not provide an SMS code sent by the bank or the electronic portal of state services. Thus, a 22-year-old local resident fell for this trick, from whose account the fraudsters stole 95 thousand rubles, and the second — a pensioner, who had previously taken out a loan for 35 thousand rubles.

In addition, cases of fraud by offering remote employment have recently become more frequent. In Sevastopol, a case was registered when a 51-year-old local resident, wanting to earn some extra money, responded to an offer on the Internet to become a seller on a popular marketplace. The woman called the phone number from an ad in one of the messengers. Unknown people told her that first she needed to buy a product, after which she would receive further instructions. Having trusted the scammers, the local resident made an order for a total of almost 99 thousand rubles, but the «employer» disappeared from contact.

Sevastopol police reminds, If you have been a victim of a crime, you must immediately contact the nearest territorial internal affairs agency or call 102, where citizens’ reports are accepted around the clock.

source: press service of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs for the city of Sevastopol