Pensioner Hears Scammers' Talk but Still Loses Million in Zabaykalsky

A 64-year-old pensioner from Petrovsk-Zabaykalsky heard scammers talking among themselves but continued to follow their instructions and transferred over a million rubles (over $10,000 at current rates) to them. This was reported on February 2 in the channel of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs for the region on MAX.

The deception began with a call from someone pretending to be a marketplace specialist, who informed her about a delivery of goods. To receive it, she had to provide a code. The pensioner voiced the digits from the SMS message and heard that the caller, without ending the call, said to someone: «She»s caught in the trap, hurry up and log into her «Gosuslugi» (the Russian government services portal).«

After that, the connection was cut off, and the woman received an SMS message about an alleged login to her Gosuslugi personal account; the text indicated a mobile phone number to call in case of unauthorized access.

The pensioner called that number, and she was intimidated with claims of hacking her personal account, a power of attorney to manage her accounts, and funding for Ukraine. Over the course of a week, the pensioner spoke dozens of times with fake specialists from various agencies, repeatedly tried to withdraw her savings at bank branches, and when she finally did, she took a taxi to Ulan-Ude and transferred 1.2 million rubles (about $12,000) through different ATMs to unknown persons in order to «save the money» from the scammers.

The fraudsters controlled every step and action, forbidding her from telling anyone. After a week, the pensioner herself realized that she had been deceived.

On the same day, a married couple of pensioners in Chita reported a similar story to the police. The elderly woman was also informed about a delivery from a marketplace, asked to provide a code from an SMS message. Then followed the familiar scenario: an SMS message about an alleged login to the Gosuslugi portal, calls from various organizations, demands to transfer money for safekeeping. The couple gave the scammers 980,000 rubles (about $9,800), saved over several years.

Criminal cases have been initiated based on both incidents.