The Ministry of Internal Affairs detained three residents of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region for helping phone scammers from Ukraine
The police detained three residents of St. Petersburg (St. Petersburg) and the Leningrad region on suspicion of collaborating with telephone scammers from Ukraine. This was reported to Lente.ru by the official representative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, Irina Volk.
Two detainees have been repeatedly convicted. It is noted that, at the direction of Ukrainian accomplices, they installed special equipment at home that allows changing the phone number of a swindler who called from abroad to a Russian one. Also, with the help of special equipment, the Russians sent money stolen from the victims abroad through accounts attached to SIM cards. The suspects bought them in bulk from online stores on the dark web.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs provided Lente.ru with an operational video with a search of the detainee. The footage shows security forces and a man, as well as special equipment.
According to the investigation, the fraudsters called the victims under the guise of bank or law enforcement officers and convinced them of unauthorized withdrawals of money from their accounts. Victims were asked to transfer their savings to “safe accounts” that were linked to phone numbers controlled by the scammers.
During the searches, more than one and a half thousand SIM-cards, seven GSM-gateways, computer equipment and communications equipment were seized. A fraud case has been initiated. Two defendants were arrested, their third accomplice is under house arrest.
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