Grandma, don’t trust them! Telephone scammers took everything from sick pensioners, even their apartment / 73online.ru

Grandma, don’t trust them! Telephone scammers took everything from sick pensioners, even their apartment

Telephone scammers have reached a new level of cynicism – they robbed an elderly couple from Ulyanovsk completely. Pensioners were forced to pay “funeral money” and sell their only apartment. The criminals’ accounts were replenished with 4.9 million rubles, and the elderly literally found themselves on the street.

House No. 6 on Aviastroiteley Avenue was built four years after the collapse of the USSR, but the winds of change did not erase the Soviet spirit from the apartment of 77-year-old Tatyana Kosmovskaya. Sideboards filled with black and white photographs, books and tableware, carpets on the floors and walls – the ambience transported us to the past.

The pensioner invited the correspondent to her desk, where an ancient computer, inherited from her late son, lived out its century. The man did not have time to start a family and leave his father’s house when his heart stopped beating. The woman took a notebook where she wrote down the chronology of her personal tragedy – her memory was failing her.

“Funeral” deposits were taken away

The fateful call came on January 19th. The stranger introduced himself as an employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and stated: the scammers stole one and a half million rubles from the accounts of Tatyana Sergeevna and her husband. The old people sold everything they could and put the money aside for a “rainy day”: “They divided it into two deposits so that in the event of the death of one, the other would provide for the funeral.” The news made her chest hurt, and the woman rushed to the bank.

— The girl explained that everything was in place. I returned home and called back. “A specialist from the financial department of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation” contacted me. The money, he says, is no longer ours. And they urgently need to be saved, – the pensioner spoke calmly, but her hands frantically clenched and unclenched the manuscript.

Callers were told not to trust real employees who were allegedly involved in the fraudulent scheme. The victim was persuaded to withdraw family assets in two installments and place them in an “insurance account.” Within two weeks, “the information will be updated” and finances will be restored.

When Tatyana Sergeevna came with her husband for his deposit, the staff of the Sberbank branch intervened: “I convinced him that my husband had cancer and needed money for treatment. She didn’t invent the disease, she provided certificates. The picture painted by the swindlers was reality for me.”.

Deprived of apartment

The scammers did not “let go” of the unfortunate woman. Sensing a big catch, they reported that the criminals were trying to redecorate the apartment. A “real estate specialist” called back and explained how to save the property.

— He said that we need to draw up a purchase and sale agreement. Withdraw the money to the “insurance account”. Otherwise, broad-shouldered thugs will come, tie you up and throw you out into the street. It became scary. No one has ever laid a finger on me. He gave the numbers of real estate offices in Ulyanovsk and hung up.

Two months later, Tatyana Sergeevna sold her only apartment for 3.3 million rubles. The next morning a certain Elvira came to her. Over the phone, the “specialist” explained that the money needed to be given to her. The guest packed the bills into packs of three hundred thousand rubles, threw them into a sports bag and disappeared forever.

The pensioner did not know that a nice woman of about fifty was receiving a share from the schemes as a so-called “drop,” that is, a figurehead. It helps to withdraw criminal money without attracting too much attention. This is probably the only person whom the security forces will be able to bring to justice – the case was opened under Part 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (fraud on an especially large scale). And the victim is probably not alone.

Housing issue

By a bitter irony of fate, Tatyana Sergeevna’s apartment was purchased by a large family. A stalemate arose. Buyers are paying off their mortgages and spending money on rental properties as retirees don’t hand over their keys and move out. There’s simply nowhere to go – no children, no grandchildren, no relatives. The woman devoted forty years of her life to school, taught children Russian language and literature, and at the end of her life she found herself of no use to anyone..

– Where should I go, outside? I will die in a nursing home in a month. This story has already ruined my health. My husband has prostate cancer, two stents on his heart, chronic viral hepatitis… The list of diseases is long, I’m afraid for him.

Tatyana Kosmovskaya graduated from the Mari Pedagogical Institute. For some time she worked in a rural school, and then she and her husband moved to Ulyanovsk – the man came to work for Aviastar. Through the industrial complex, the couple received an apartment. The woman’s last place of work was Boarding School No. 91.

The buyers of the apartment filed a lawsuit demanding the forced eviction of pensioners. “I understand that they are right, I myself gave the money to the scammers. But what should we do?– Tatyana Sergeevna cries.

The Kosmovskys went to lawyers, but again ran into deception. Representatives of one of the city’s offices charged 30 thousand rubles for services, took the old people to the police and disappeared with the words: “We did what we could.” Came out to an elderly couple Dmitry Shcheglovwho offered legal assistance “pro bono”, that is, free of charge.

— The outcome of the litigation is aggravated by the fact that the buyers are real and have taken out a mortgage. We filed a counterclaim to declare the transaction invalid, carried out under the guise of deception and misconception. If this is a well-thought-out scheme, then the court can request statements of all accounts. Then we’ll find out where the down payment came from, whether the mortgage was paid off after Kosmovskaya gave the money to the scammers. We are working on the issue of allocating housing from the flexible fund.

Shcheglov does not undertake to voice forecasts, so as not to disturb pensioners, who have already suffered: “They have hope, and that’s what matters.”.

Tatyana and Ivan Kosmovsky need financial assistance. Concerned Ulyanovsk residents can transfer money to the victims’ Sberbank card: