Woman survives street scammers' cashback trick

Near the Passazh, two guys approached me. They were the same height (about 1.56 m — 5«1»). One looked about 19–20 years old, the other 15–17.

They come up and say: supposedly there«s a gift in the form of cashback for the bank I use. Accordingly, they asked which one I use. I named two banks. Then they asked for my phone number — on the pretext that some great cashbacks would supposedly fall on me. And it began…

The older guy claimed that the younger one was his trainee. Like, he«s training the trainee and needs help signing up clients. They handed me their phone, into which they were entering my data, so that I would enter my date of birth myself. One guy corrected the other, explained something, pretending to be teaching.

They really sweet-talked me. There were jokes, just youthful banter that lightened the mood. But they were engaged in fraudulent activities.

After they entered my data (phone and date of birth), I received an SMS from an unknown organization. The guys insisted that it was completely harmless, that it was their site and so on. They said everything to get me to dictate the code. That«s how they registered me on a microloan website.

Then they asked for my passport. For «identity verification» and «age confirmation». I lied and said I didn«t have my passport with me.

Then they remembered the banks. They managed to log into the app of one of my banks — still under the pretext of wanting to give me some cashback. They got a couple of codes, said «thank you» and left.

After that I finally realized I had been sweet-talked. I immediately opened the bank app and in the «devices» tab saw an unfamiliar phone. I only access the bank from my iPhone, and this was some strange «Android». From which they had logged in just two minutes ago.

The result: those guys tried to take out a microloan in my name right on the street, but fortunately I didn«t let them photograph me with my passport. But they did get access to my personal account in the app. I immediately changed my number in the bank, froze and reissued all cards.

I want to warn other residents. Don«t let anyone sweet-talk you like that.

Read about how a teacher from Yekaterinburg was scammed in a messenger using a handsome man — a British underwear model. The woman lost 1.5 million rubles (about $16,700 at current rates) and fell into debt, trusting a rugged «broker». Read more.

We also told how a medic from Yekaterinburg lost two apartments after talking to «Moscow police». He was scammed using a standard scheme — there, by the way, they also asked for a «mirror transaction», so if you hear such an offer on the phone, just hang up. Read more.