Over 2 years, telephone scammers stole more than 250 apartments from Russians

It turned out that most of the apartments were stolen by telephone scammers in Moscow. Here, since the beginning of 2025, victims of scammers have lost 75 apartments. Over the past two years, scammers stole 70 apartments in St. Petersburg, 38 apartments in the Moscow region, 34 apartments in the Novosibirsk region, and 22 apartments in the Chelyabinsk region. There is no nationwide statistics on telephone housing fraud, but the Ministry of Internal Affairs collects such data for large regions.

According to Filippov, the scheme involving the sale of housing under the influence of fraudsters is common in large cities with expensive real estate.

According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, in the Altai Territory, scammers forced the owners to sell 7 apartments, in the Krasnoyarsk and Perm Territories, Saratov and Murmansk Regions — 6 apartments each, in the Krasnodar Territory — 3 apartments.

Deceived owners transfer money from the sale of their home to the scammers, after which they recover from the influence of the scammers and go to court, trying to return the property, a representative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs noted. But often the former owner’s claims are denied.

After the sale of 251 apartments, 90 lawsuits were filed in court, Filippov said. While 55 applications have not been considered, in 20 applications the ownership rights remained with the buyers, in 14 — with the sellers. Daniil Filippov noted that the deal is declared invalid in 41% of cases. At the same time, a conscientious buyer of an apartment is left without money and without housing. In 39% of cases, the transaction is declared invalid, but two-way restitution is applied — the party to the transaction returns what it received under the agreement. In 20% of cases, the court refuses the former owner, the transaction is recognized as valid, and the apartment is left to the buyer.

source: CYANOGEN