Scammers compel Voronezh teenager to hand over 1.5 million in valuables

Another victim of phone scammers is a family from Voronezh, where a child was forced to hand over savings. As reported by the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the region, on January 21, a woman called the boy, claiming that locks would be changed in their house — asking how many keys were needed. This is a classic scam scheme. Under the pretext of registering a request, the scammer asked the teenager to provide an SMS code, which the criminals used to gain access to the boy«s personal account on the Gosuslugi government services portal. Later, he received a notification that his »My Documents« personal account had been accessed from another device.

Judging by what the child«s mother later told police, the scammers knew exactly who they were targeting. They were aware that the family was wealthy, with a two-story apartment, and that money was certainly present. The boy was intimidated with fabricated accusations of »donating« to terrorists — alleging that he was financing various terrorist entities and would be imprisoned — and to »resolve the issue,« they forced him to gather all valuable items from the house and surrender them.

«The scammers communicated with the teenager via video call, saw the apartment, and emphasized that it was two-story, insisting he show the contents of the family safe,» described the money extraction scheme at the Ministry of Internal Affairs. «Under their pressure — supposedly to avoid »breaking the baseboards« or »conducting a search« at home — the youth had to voluntarily hand over all valuables.»

In the end, the frightened boy gave the scammers savings and jewels from the safe — totaling about 1.495 million rubles (approximately $16,600 at current rates). To instill even more fear and paralyze his reasoning — another typical scam tactic — the boy was persuaded to wrap everything in a woolen sweater, pack it in a suitcase, cover it with other items, take it out of the apartment, and leave it at a designated location.

The child«s mother filed a police report, and a criminal case has been initiated. The conspiratorial schemers, if caught, face up to 10 years in prison.