Sevastopol police: fraudsters steal money from city residents under the pretext of a loan on behalf of acquaintances

The Sevastopol police note that criminals hack into users’ accounts on social networks and messengers, after which they write to their friends on their behalf and ask to borrow money.

Fraudsters lure out savings under various pretexts: payment for rented housing, urgent purchase of medicine or medical care, payment for towing services or car repairs. Two local entrepreneurs, a 41-year-old woman and a 49-year-old man, fell for such tricks of fraudsters. In the first case, the victim received a message in one of the popular messengers from her friend, in which she urgently asked to borrow money. The woman, believing that it was really her friend writing to her, transferred 20 thousand rubles to a third-party bank account. The second victim found himself in a similar situation, who, believing in the same scheme, transferred 34 thousand rubles to the attackers.— the press service of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs in Sevastopol reported.

It is not difficult to recognize scammers: the process of deception takes place exclusively in correspondence, since the perpetrators avoid telephone conversations under any pretext, and, as a rule, the loan amount is calculated in several tens of thousands of rubles.

Fraudsters often use a photo of a friend as a logo and, to make it more credible, send a photo of a bank card with the name of the person on whose behalf they are asking for a loan. Thinking that they are helping their friends or relatives, the victims transfer money to accounts controlled by the criminals.

Sevastopol police reminds, To avoid becoming a victim of such fraud, firstly, before transferring money, insist on a mandatory phone call. Secondly, ask the person who introduces himself as your friend a question that only he knows the answer to. For example, when and under what circumstances you met, when you last saw each other, what is the name of his pet, and so on. It should be noted that often after the first such question, the scammers end the correspondence, as they understand that you have exposed them.

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