Courier drops

[Man]

At the beginning of August 2023, three local residents turned to the Mtsensk Municipal District of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia on the same day with a difference of a few hours. The women reported fraudulent actions committed against them. First, the citizens received phone calls from unknown persons - they were informed that their relatives were the culprits of serious accidents. Under the pretext of resolving the situation and releasing relatives from criminal liability, the attackers lured large sums from the applicants - 510, 100 and 110 thousand rubles. This money was allegedly intended for the injured parties, it had to be transferred to a person who would come to the place of residence of the Amsk residents. The citizens did so. In two cases, one man came to the victims, in the third there were two visitors. The fact that the women became victims of remote fraudsters became clear after the transfer of money and calls to relatives.

Based on these facts, the investigative department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia "Mtsensk" initiated criminal cases on the grounds of a crime under parts 2 and 3 of article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation "Fraud".

As a result of the operational-search measures, criminal investigation officers on the same day identified and detained two suspects in hot pursuit. The men were going to leave the city of Mtsensk by taxi. They were detained by police officers and taken to the Mtsensk Municipal District of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia to establish all the circumstances of the incident. The suspects were men born in 1997 and 1999 who arrived in the Oryol region from the Tula region. The money received from local residents was transferred by the attackers through ATMs to the accounts indicated to them by their accomplices. The attackers kept the agreed part of the amounts. The damage caused by the actions of the attackers amounted to 820 thousand rubles.

At the time of the preliminary investigation, the suspects were chosen a preventive measure in the form of detention. As a result of investigative actions, officers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia "Mtsensk" collected a sufficient amount of evidence and sent the case to court with an indictment.

The Mtsensk District Court found the foreigners guilty of committing four crimes under parts 2 and 3 of article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. For fraud, that is, theft of someone else's property by deception, committed as part of a group of persons by prior conspiracy, causing significant and large damage to four citizens, the court sentenced each of them to imprisonment for a period of 4 years and 6 months with serving a sentence in a general regime penal colony.

The convicts appealed the verdict of the district court, but the regional court rejected their complaints.

 

[Man]

In the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug - Yugra, a 75-year-old local resident turned to the duty unit of the Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia in the city of Surgut with a message about a multimillion-dollar fraud. After questioning the applicant, the police found out that she had been deceived by telephone scammers.

As it became known to law enforcement officers, at first the attackers called the pensioner and, posing as representatives of the mobile operator, under the pretext of changing the tariff, convinced her to dictate personal data. Then the elderly woman received a call back allegedly from employees of the State Services portal and was informed that her account had been hacked, and someone was trying to use her personal data to steal her finances stored in bank accounts, as well as to apply for a loan on her behalf.

Then the fraudsters called back on behalf of the specialists of the Central Bank and convinced a resident of Surgut to come to the bank, contact the manager and transfer 2 million rubles to an account unknown to her, and then cash out another 12.5 million rubles, return home and transfer them to the courier. At the same time, the scammers strongly recommended that the pensioner tell the financial workers that she needed the money to buy real estate, which she did.

As a result of a set of operational-search measures, officers of the criminal investigation unit of the Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia in the city of Surgut identified the criminal messenger who came for cash, and, having gone on a business trip to the Udmurt Republic, detained him in Izhevsk in cooperation with local police. The accomplice of the swindlers turned out to be a 30-year-old man.

The suspect explained that he acted on the instructions of unknown persons who hired him as a courier via the Internet, and specially arrived in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug to carry out a criminal task. He transferred the stolen money to the employer, keeping a small percentage of the amount as a reward.

On the fact of fraud committed against the pensioner, the investigator of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia in Surgut initiated a criminal case under Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The investigation continues, the identities and whereabouts of other participants in the scam are being established.

Video

 

[Man]

The Novgorod District Court convicted a 22-year-old resident of the regional center for committing 8 episodes of illegal actions related to the theft of money from elderly citizens.

During the investigation conducted by the Investigation Department of the regional Ministry of Internal Affairs, it was established that in December last year, the attacker was looking for a job, and in one of the Internet messengers he found an ad for earnings related to illegal activities. He was required to immediately go to the addresses of pensioners indicated to him, receive money from them, and then transfer it to the right bank accounts minus his share. Realizing this, the Novgorod resident agreed to all the conditions of employers - telephone scammers.

During a month of such work, he visited seven pensioners aged 73 to 90 years and took a total of about 1.7 million rubles from them. Another 100 thousand were handed over to him by a 75-year-old resident of the village of Proletariy, Novgorod district, who believed that she was financially helping her friend.

In all cases, the fraudsters acted according to the scheme "Your relative got into an accident". Traditionally, money was needed for the treatment of victims, as well as to resolve the issue of avoiding criminal liability. The required amount varied depending on the well-being of the victims and was then transferred to the courier who arrived.

During the operational-search activities, including while viewing video recordings from surveillance cameras, operational police officers detained the courier.

In addition, at the end of last year, he stole household appliances worth over 40 thousand rubles from a rented apartment.

Currently, the court sentenced him to 5 years in prison with serving in a general regime colony.