Scammers Force Voronezh Woman to Hand Over Million with Code Word 'Roman'

A new victim of telephone scammers is a 72-year-old resident of Voronezh — elderly people are one of the main target audiences of fraudsters. The grandmother was harassed for two weeks — being told tall tales, intimidated, and with the scammers changing disguises. But even after giving up the money, the old woman refused to believe until the end that she had been deceived by criminals. And it all began according to the classic scenario with elderly victims: a fake «social worker» called the woman, delighting her with the news that she was supposedly entitled to a government payout. This was on January 8.

— The scammer asked to dictate the SNILS (Russian social insurance number) data, after which the call was cut off, — said the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Voronezh Region. — After a few minutes, a new criminal called the woman back — he introduced himself as an «investigator from law enforcement agencies», began intimidating her with criminal charges for «aiding terrorists». And stated that liability could be avoided by «declaring» savings in bank accounts.

Further, the grandmother was confused by a «detective» with a «lawyer». Of course, spinning conspiracy theories: the frightened old woman was forced to write an «application addressed to the deputy head of the operational headquarters», photograph it, and send it to one of the messengers. On January 14, following the scammers« tune, she withdrew 1 million rubles (approximately $10,500 at current rates) from her bank account, and on the 17th, handed them over in a package to a courier, having first stated the »code word« — »Roman«.

When the next day, the utterly brazen fraudsters began intimidating the woman with a supposedly taken-out loan in her name, the daughter found out about everything — and vainly tried to reason with her. On January 24, seriously fearing for her relative, the daughter called a police squad — directly to her mother«s home.

In total, over the past weekend of January 24 and 25, seven residents of the region filed reports of fraud with the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and two more — about theft of money from their bank cards. In total, people lost more than 2.5 million rubles (approximately $26,300 at current rates).