Young Krasnoyarsk woman gave 17 million from her parents' safe to scammers

In Krasnoyarsk, a young girl became a victim of scammers and gave 17 million rubles to the courier. This was reported to the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the region.

As investigators established, in early November, an unknown person called the 18-year-old girl using instant messenger and introduced himself as a flower shop courier. He told the young Krasnoyarsk woman that the delivery of the bouquet had been registered in her name, and to confirm it she needed to give the code from the SMS. The girl followed the instructions.

After that, she received a second call on her phone, allegedly from a technical support employee who reported that her account on the State Services portal had been “hacked.” To restore access, the attackers asked the young Krasnoyarsk resident to contact a “specialist”, after which they began to give new instructions via video link.

The scammers convinced her to conduct a “search” in the apartment and find cash in order to “declare” it. The girl took 17 million rubles from her parents’ safe and, following the instructions of the scammers, handed them over to a courier in a park in the Central District. Only after this did she realize that she had become a victim of deception and reported what had happened to her relatives.

Police detained a suspect in Irkutsk. An 18-year-old boy admitted to law enforcement officers that he received an offer to earn extra money via messenger, came to Krasnoyarsk, took the money and hid it in a cache on the instructions of his “employers.”

A criminal case was opened against the young man under Part 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (fraud). The maximum sanction of the article provides for up to 10 years of imprisonment. A preventive measure in the form of detention was chosen against the detainee. The investigation is ongoing.