In Samarkand, a schoolboy was detained for extorting money from drivers while posing as a fake traffic police officer

Fake account and the 'fine payment' scheme

In Samarkand, a minor has been identified who, posing as a road traffic safety officer, engaged in fraudulent correspondence with drivers. As reported by Zamon.uz citing data from the Road Traffic Safety Department, a student took a photograph from the Instagram page of Khurshid Safarov, head of the information service of the Samarkand regional Road Traffic Safety Department, and created a fake Telegram account in his name.

How it worked and who was affected

The scheme targeted car owners: the teenager told drivers that their vehicles supposedly had unpaid fines and offered to 'help' with payment. Some citizens transferred money to the specified bank cards — 50,000 and 100,000 sums each. He did not use the collected funds to pay fines, but spent them on his own needs. A practical takeaway for drivers: messages about fines from alleged traffic police officers in private messenger chats are not an official channel, and transfers 'to help' only serve fraudsters, as this case confirms.

Detention and investigation of other episodes

In response, officers of the Cybercrime Combat Department of the Samarkand regional police conducted operational activities; the minor was identified and detained. Initial investigative actions are currently underway; his possible involvement in other similar cases is being examined, meaning the final scale of the episodes has not yet been determined.

Apologies

According to the publication, the student expressed remorse and apologized to Khurshid Safarov and to citizens. His father also asked the public for forgiveness for his child's behavior and stated that he would personally take charge of his upbringing from now on. The publications do not report what measures of responsibility have been taken against the teenager.