Telephone scammers posing as a mobile operator swindled more than 30,000 rubles from a Gomel resident.
The Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case on this fact.
This was reported by the press service of the Investigative Committee for the Gomel Region.
How the scammers operated
The victim, a 51-year-old resident of Gomel, often traveled to Russia for work and actively used a messenger popular there for business communication.
At the end of September, he received a call allegedly from a mobile operator employee. The girl told the Gomel resident that his contract for the provision of communication services was expiring and offered to renew it remotely, requesting passport and personal data.
After the “extension of the contract,” the man received a message about a loan being issued in his name.
The Gomel resident realized that he had become a victim of fraud and went to the police, but did not get there: in another messenger, he was contacted by an alleged employee of the financial police of the State Control Committee.
The fake law enforcement officer told the man that the fraudsters had taken out a loan in his name, and that the account had been blocked, but part of the loan funds had gone to Dnepropetrovsk to purchase drones.
Then the Gomel resident was contacted via video link by the "leader of the rapid response group". He warned about the search and the need to declare cash.
The "State Control employee" explained the "declaration" algorithm to the man. Following his instructions, the Gomel resident exchanged Russian rubles for Belarusian rubles and transferred them through an information kiosk to the fraudsters' accounts.
In total, the man lost more than 30,000 rubles. A criminal case was opened on this fact under Part 3 of Article 209 of the Criminal Code (large-scale fraud).
