In Kyiv, scammers posing as SBU agents defrauded a former member of the Verkhovna Rada out of $31,000
In Kyiv, a 71-year-old man who served as a member of the first-term Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine fell victim to a scam and transferred $31,800 to the fraudsters. The scammers convinced him that the money allegedly needed to be transferred for “fund verification” by SBU employees.
Under the procedural guidance of juvenile prosecutors from the Darnytsia District Prosecutor’s Office, two men—aged 17 and 20—were notified that they were suspected of aiding and abetting fraud.
According to the prosecutor’s office, the former lawmaker handed over his savings to a courier who arrived to collect the money under a false pretext.
“The courier who came to collect the money was a 17-year-old boy who had been recruited into the scheme by a 20-year-old resident of Odesa,” the prosecutor’s office noted.
Via Telegram, the 17-year-old courier was sent a photo of the victim, who was supposed to hand over the money to him, along with instructions on how to proceed.
According to the organizers’ plan, the teenager was supposed to keep $600 for himself and exchange the rest of the funds at a currency exchange office before transferring them to a crypto wallet.
Law enforcement officers detained the 17-year-old courier before he had a chance to transfer the money.
The prosecutor’s office reported that the entire amount of savings was returned to the owner.
A pre-trial investigation is currently underway, conducted by investigators from the Darnytskyi Police Department of the Main Directorate of the National Police in Kyiv.
Aiding and abetting fraud is punishable by 5 to 12 years of imprisonment with confiscation of property.
This was reported by the Kyiv City Prosecutor’s Office.
As a reminder, scammers are currently exploiting interest in the movie “The Odyssey” by creating fake streaming sites that purport to offer free online viewing of the film. Visitors to such sites may be tricked into providing personal and banking information, as well as exposed to phishing attacks and malware infections, according to The Guardian World.
