A very kind and impressionable Belarusian woman transferred over 90,000 rubles to save an American soldier.
It turned out that the money was swindled out of a Grodno resident in this way by scammers.
As reported by the press service of the Investigative Committee of Belarus for the Grodno region, the story began in February of this year.
Then the 33-year-old city resident received a message on Skype from a man who introduced himself as a US military serviceman.
According to him, he was in Yemen at the time. During the conversation, he said that he was divorced and had a little daughter back home.
Over the next 4 months, the “military man” showed the lady signs of attention.
When the conversation moved into a more trusting direction, he asked the Grodno woman to write a statement that she was his fiancée.
According to him, this way he could terminate the contract and return to his daughter as soon as possible. The kind girl agreed to fulfill the request.
After that, the scammers began to work on her more aggressively. They sent her a letter notifying her of the detention of a "military man".
They said that bail would have to be posted in order for him to be released.
Concerned about the fate of her friend, the Grodno resident began looking for funds to subsequently transfer them to the specified account, the Investigative Committee reported.
Then the scammers said that the American was hospitalized and his treatment had to be paid for. And he confirmed it.
The girl still believed. As a result, in several stages, she transferred over 90,000 rubles to the crypto wallet specified in the letter.
To make the fictitious story more convincing, the “US Army soldier” gave the Belarusian woman the login and password for his personal account in Internet banking, which was blocked.
All correspondence was conducted in English. The man promised to return the transferred money.
At some point, the victim realized that she was being deceived and contacted the police.
A criminal case has been opened on the fact of fraud committed on an especially large scale.
The victim of the fraudsters was questioned, the computer equipment was inspected, and information about the accounts to which the money was transferred was requested.
A range of investigative actions and operational search measures are being carried out aimed at identifying the person who committed this crime, the press service summed up.