Kirov pensioner loses more than 15 million roubles to impersonation scam

A 70-year-old woman in Kirov transferred more than 15 million roubles to fraudsters after receiving a message seeking purported consent for major repairs to her building. Police opened a criminal case, the regional interior ministry said.

The ministry said the woman was sent a link to confirm her consent. After following it, she received a false notification claiming that her Gosuslugi public-services account had been hacked and money transferred to a Ukrainian citizen in her name.

People posing as a Rosfinmonitoring financial intelligence official and an economic crime investigator then contacted her. They claimed she was suspected of financing terrorism and demanded that she transfer her savings to an account supposedly intended to protect them.

The woman sold shares, pawned jewellery and withdrew money from bank deposits. She made transfers through cash machines over several days.

After the callers stopped communicating, she contacted police. Investigators opened a case under Part 4 of Article 159 of Russia’s Criminal Code, covering fraud on an especially large scale.