Telephone scammers swindled almost 250,000 rubles from a Minsk resident.
A criminal case has been opened on fraud on an especially large scale.
This was reported by the press service of the Investigative Committee's Minsk office.
How the scammers operated
According to the investigation, in July a colleague wrote to a 69-year-old resident of Minsk in the Telegram messenger.
He said that a KGB officer would soon contact the Minsk resident. The pensioner had no reason to doubt the veracity of his colleague's words.
After some time, the man received a call in the messenger from a supposed law enforcement officer. He told the Minsk resident that his unscrupulous colleagues had distributed his personal data and that scammers had taken advantage of it.
They allegedly took out loans and opened accounts, which is why the National Bank employees will have to deal with the situation.
Then the pensioner received a call allegedly from a consultant of a credit and financial institution.
The caller explained that in order to combat the fraudsters, the man needed to take out as many loans as possible and thereby prove his non-involvement in past transactions.
The Minsk resident tried to apply for loans, but was refused. The "KGB officer" contacted him again and said that the scammers had put the man's apartment up for sale and he needed to urgently sell it himself at a price below the market price by contacting a real estate company.
At the first real estate agency, the manager suspected the man of being connected to scammers and refused to handle the transaction.
The realtors at another agency were more accommodating. As a result, the capital apartment was sold for only $25,000, and the money was transferred to the fraudsters' accounts.
But that wasn't the end of it. The fake National Bank employee reported that in order to close all the loans and credits issued by the scammers, it was necessary to continue replenishing the accounts.
The Minsk resident transferred his personal savings – more than 42,000 dollars. After that, the “consultant” stopped responding.
The worried pensioner called the "KGB officer". He said that the bank employee had stolen the money and that in order to catch him, it was necessary to continue transferring funds.
The man realized that he was being deceived and contacted law enforcement agencies. During interrogation, the Minsk resident said that many transactions were carried out by fraudsters, since he provided them with data for remote access to the phone.
Due to such manipulations, over 40,000 rubles were additionally written off from the victim’s account.
The man also said that the scammers mentioned the names and surnames of his close colleagues during the conversation.
In total, he lost more than 249 thousand rubles. A criminal case was opened under Part 4 of Article 209 of the Criminal Code (fraud on an especially large scale).
