Resident of Bashkiria gave scammers 1.1 million due to "pension recalculation"

A 63-year-old resident of Sterlitamak lost her savings after believing phone scammers. As reported by the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Republic of Bashkortostan, the swindlers spent several days manipulating the woman, identifying themselves as employees of the Pension Fund, the Central Bank, the FSB, and Rosfinmonitoring.

The criminals came up with several reasons at once: pension recalculation, a hacked account on "Gosuslugi" (State Services), terrorism financing, and even an "expert examination of money." As a result, the pensioner withdrew all her savings and handed a bundle of cash to a courier near a trash container in Ufa. For "security," they used the code word "Dove." After the handover, a fake receipt for the seizure of money for expert examination arrived via messenger.

A criminal case has been initiated regarding this fact under the article "Fraud on an especially large scale" (Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The criminals face up to 10 years of imprisonment.

It is noteworthy that the woman learned about fraud schemes from the news and even attended a preventive talk by police officers in June. However, this did not help her resist the scammers' tricks.