The key facts

  • The pensioner on Festivalnaya Street handed cash to couriers several times; the total damage exceeds 6.7 million rubles
  • A 32-year-old resident of Noginsk who received 930,000 rubles has been detained; he was given a written undertaking not to leave the area
  • A case has been opened under Part 4 of Article 159 of the Russian Criminal Code; police are searching for the other participants in the scheme

The scheme lasted a month

In Moscow, phone scammers swindled more than 6.7 million rubles out of an elderly woman. The capital's police reported the case on November 9. Moscow policeFor a month, the perpetrators called the pensioner, posing as law enforcement officers, and convinced her that her bank accounts had been blocked and that to protect her savings she needed to withdraw the money and hand it over to a courier. Several times, the woman gave cash to strangers near her home on Festivalnaya Street.

One of the couriers detained

Police detained a 32-year-old resident of Noginsk who, according to the police, received 930,000 rubles from the pensioner and passed them on to an accomplice. He was given a preventive measure in the form of a written undertaking not to leave the area. A criminal case has been opened under Part 4 of Article 159 of the Russian Criminal Code — fraud on an especially large scale. The remaining participants in the scheme are being identified.

A similar case a week earlier

This is not the only such report in recent days: earlier, on November 6, it was reported that a Muscovite gave scammers 9.2 million rublesafter believing a story about her personal account on Gosuslugi being hacked. Both incidents share a typical scheme involving a story about blocked accounts or hacked accounts and handing cash to a courier, but they are separate incidents with different victims and different amounts of damage.