Scammers steal 7.4 million rubles from soldier's mother

In Salavat, scammers defrauded a pensioner of more than 7.4 million rubles (approximately $81,400 at current rates), according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Bashkortostan. The victim was the mother of a soldier who died while fulfilling his military duty. A criminal case of large-scale fraud has been initiated.

As police established, the fraudsters contacted the woman when she was processing documents for payments with a lawyer from her son«s military unit. After that, an unknown person called her, introducing himself as an employee of the military department and claiming that the deceased had been posthumously awarded the Order of Courage and the Medal «For Courage».

«The fraudster explained that he could handle the lump-sum payment himself, for which he needed her passport number. The resident, suspecting nothing, provided the data,» the press service of the Bashkortostan Ministry of Internal Affairs reported.

After that, she began receiving calls from people claiming to be «bank security employees», «an investigator for particularly important cases from Moscow», and «a specialist from the Central Bank department». They assured her that someone was trying to take out a loan in her name, and to prevent this, she needed to close old accounts and transfer money to new ones.

Following the scammer«s instructions, the victim installed a mobile application on her phone, ordered cash, and via an ATM of another bank transferred about 2.5 million rubles (approximately $27,500 at current rates) to the fraudster. The scammer clarified in a conversation with the victim that as soon as the remaining money arrived, the operation would need to be repeated. Later, the victim received payments for her son and, again as instructed by the scammers, ordered cash at the bank, which she also transferred to third-party accounts.

«She was told that in two days a lawyer would come to her, take all the receipts, and sign documents with her. On the appointed day, no one came to the applicant, and only then did she realize that she had sent money to scammers and contacted the police,» the Ministry of Internal Affairs reported.

The department noted that the victim, even while communicating with the real military lawyer, had been repeatedly warned about possible attempts by fraudsters to get hold of the money. Moreover, employees of the bank where she ordered the cash had also told her about this.