In the Krasnoyarsk Territory, scammers dragged a boy and a schoolgirl into a fake “FSB special operation”

In the Krasnoyarsk Territory, police uncovered a fraudulent scheme, the victims of which were a 21-year-old resident of Krasnoyarsk and a 15-year-old schoolgirl from Norilsk. The attackers, posing as government employees, tricked the victims into participating in a fictitious “FSB operation.”

The first victim of the scammers was a 15-year-old girl. It all started with a call from a fake courier and a code from an SMS. After that, she was switched to “an employee of the Ministry of Digital Development,” and then to a “representative of Rosfinmonitoring.”

A 21-year-old resident of Krasnoyarsk also received a call from an imaginary courier. The “processing” of the guy was continued by a “Rosfinmonitoring employee” on the social network, and later by a “FSB specialist.”

“The scammers used the same methods of intimidation with criminal liability allegedly for droppership or high treason, demands for complete secrecy – “… if you tell someone, you will be jailed,” creating a sense of urgency and importance of the “operation,” demonstrating a false power of attorney for a representative of an unfriendly state and materials of the criminal case,” said the Main Directorate of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs for the region.

The schoolgirl was told that her family’s money and jewelry needed to be checked for “dubious origin.” During video calls, the girl showed the scammers 175.5 thousand rubles in cash and jewelry worth about 2 million rubles, and then handed over a cosmetic bag with valuables to an unknown man using the code word “pineapple.”

The Krasnoyarsk resident was told that a power of attorney had allegedly been issued in his name for a citizen of an unfriendly country. To “prove his innocence,” he had to cooperate with the security forces. On the instructions of the curators, the young man flew to Norilsk, took a cosmetic bag from the schoolgirl and found money and jewelry inside. He managed to sell part of the gold to a pawnshop, earning about 290 thousand rubles.

When the guy was in the post office and was about to transfer 300 thousand rubles to the scammers, a postal employee noticed what was happening and called the police. The young man immediately told law enforcement officers about the “assignment” he had received.

Law enforcement officers opened a criminal case under Part 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Fraud”. The maximum penalty under this article is up to 10 years in prison.

The young man was detained under Article 91 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation. Now the police are identifying the organizers of the scheme. The Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs reported that the jewelry will be returned to the schoolgirl’s family in the near future.

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