Urals teen gives scammers 8 million rubles

An 18-year-old from Bogdanovich, Sverdlovsk Region, handed over 8 million rubles ($80,000 at current rates) to telephone scammers who pretended to be federal agents and threatened him with treason charges unless he «declared» his family’s savings.

Jul 27, 2026

The victim delivered cash from a different city to the scammers.
Source:
Sverdlovsk police

Employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Sverdlovsk Region detained four couriers of telephone scammers who helped steal 8 million rubles ($80,000 at current rates) from a businessman from Bogdanovich. The police were lying in ambush hunting for drug dealers, but ended up catching other criminals.

Four suspects were arrested for acting as couriers in the telephone fraud scheme.
Source:
Sverdlovsk police

As reported by the MVD press service, the 18-year-old son of an individual entrepreneur from Bogdanovich fell victim to the scammers and helped them rob his father. The family was expecting a package from an online marketplace, so when the young man received a call from a «employee of the delivery service,» he suspected nothing and provided a four-digit code from an SMS.

Immediately after, fake employees of Rosfinmonitoring (the Federal Financial Monitoring Service) and the FSB (Federal Security Service) called him. They said that his Gosuslugi (state services portal) account had allegedly been hacked and that loans were being applied for in his and his parents’ names. They frightened him, saying that the funds would be sent to the Ukrainian Armed Forces and that he and his family would be charged with high treason if he told anyone. The scammers also convinced the victim to download a third-party app to communicate with the Central Bank and law enforcement.

«For 11 hours, the businessman’s son was kept in constant contact with the scammers, not allowing him to come to his senses. Then, under the pretext of conducting a so-called “online search,” the thieves demanded that he show the house premises via video call. Having discovered a safe, they convinced him to “declare” the savings and hand them over for inspection to a “mobile laboratory,”» said Colonel Valery Gorelykh.

The young man took the money from his parents’ safe, brought it from Bogdanovich to Zarechny, and handed it to a courier. He was sure he was saving his family.

The first to be detained was a native of Perm Krai, born in 2008. Three more accomplices were caught a little later. All four were arrested and placed in a pre-trial detention center. A criminal case was opened against them under Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (fraud). All defendants gave confessions.

The stolen money was sent by police for examination, after which it will be returned to the owner. The investigation continues.

All materials on the schemes used by scammers are collected in a special section. Read also: what to do if money from a stranger arrives on your card.