Almost 900 residents of Buryatia have become victims of Internet scammers since the beginning of the year. 45 people joined their ranks last week.
Criminals operate on social networks, websites and instant messengers. They pretend to be bank employees, police officers, and company representatives. They usually intimidate that someone has withdrawn money from a card, applied for a loan, or hacked their personal account; sometimes they offer additional income. It is usually difficult to recover lost money, but sometimes it is possible. As in the case of one of the pensioners in Buryatia.
Alexey Nikonov, Deputy Prosecutor of the Zheleznodorozhny District of Ulan-Ude: A stranger called the victim and said that her apartment had been sold by unknown persons, and in order to return the apartment, it was necessary to draw up a fictitious purchase and sale agreement. Acting on the instructions of the scammer, the woman contacted the real estate agency employee and the buyer, with whom she agreed on a deal. After the buyer transferred the funds, the pensioner transferred them to bank accounts reported by the attacker.
A criminal case was opened regarding fraud. In parallel, the prosecutor of the Zheleznodorozhny district filed a claim with the Zyuzinsky District Court of Moscow to recover more than one and a half million rubles from the person into whose bank account the money was received. Themis satisfied the claims in full.
Meanwhile, since the beginning of the year, about 182 million rubles have ended up in the pockets of scammers. Residents are asked to be especially careful during strange calls, not to take their word for it and double-check information from all dubious callers.
