Hospital Worker in Yekaterinburg Loses 12 Million Rubles to Scammers

In Yekaterinburg, a 57-year-old medical institution employee became a victim of criminals who stole 12 million rubles (approximately $120,000 at current rates) from her. This amount represented all the funds that were in her bank account.

As the victim explained to the police, first she was called by a person who introduced himself as an employee of a homeowners association. He informed about a planned replacement of intercom keys and asked to dictate the numbers from an incoming SMS message, which the woman did.

Then she was contacted by a person who introduced herself as an employee of the «Gosuslugi» (state services portal) support service. The Yekaterinburg police department reported: «Next, she was contacted by an alleged employee of the »Gosuslugi« support service, and a standard deception scheme was applied to the victim. Fake representatives of government agencies convinced her that, by naming the code, she had handed over her banking details to scammers, and now her savings would be transferred to accounts in an unfriendly state. At the same time, she herself faces severe criminal liability.»

The criminals persuaded the woman to withdraw all the money from her account and hand it over for «protection» to the Central Bank. However, instead of visiting the office, she met in a park with a courier who gave the code word «economist», and handed him a package with cash.

The press group of the Yekaterinburg police department added: «In addition to her own savings, the victim gave the scammers her mother»s long-term savings, which were also stored in her account. The pensioner had been saving money for several decades, first from her salary and then from her pension, only to lose it all in one moment due to her daughter«s insufficient vigilance.»

Law enforcement officials remind that scammers are constantly developing new deception schemes. To avoid getting into a similar situation, it is necessary to follow basic safety rules:

• Do not engage in phone conversations with strangers.
• Do not tell anyone your personal data, passwords, and codes from SMS.
• Do not transfer or hand over money to unknown persons.
• Always personally double-check information received by phone through official channels.

Earlier in Yekaterinburg, a similar case was registered: a doctor who met a girl on a dating site lost one million rubles (approximately $10,000 at current rates).