Fraudster swindled Muscovite woman out of more than 1 million rubles under the pretext of coming to visit her

A pensioner in Moscow lost more than 1 million rubles after she received a letter from a foreigner who allegedly wanted to get acquainted with her and come to Russia. This was reported by the Moscow Prosecutor's Office on December 21.

The fraudulent scheme began in late June, when a 69-year-old woman received a letter from her peer named Owen, who said he was a marine engineer, a widower, had two grandchildren and lived abroad. He then invited the Russian woman to come and visit him. The woman entered into correspondence, but refused the invitation to travel abroad.

Then the foreigner said that he was ready to come to Moscow himself, but in order for him to be released from work, the woman must send his managers a letter to the firm. After "Owen" said that he was let to travel, but to buy him airline tickets, the Muscovite woman must send money to the firm, which will then be reimbursed.

When the woman transferred the first 65 thousand rubles to the bank card details sent to her, it turned out that the "logistics" had changed and another 70 thousand rubles were needed. After that, the attacker asked for 220 thousand rubles for medical insurance and another 390 thousand rubles for expenses during the trip. Then "Owen" allegedly got injured on the way to the airport and asked for money for treatment. The Muscovite took out loans to "help the man" for a total of more than 1.3 million rubles. But even after that, the foreigner never arrived.

"When he and the firm stopped responding to messages - the woman realized that she had become a victim of deception. Establishment of persons involved in the commission of fraudulent actions, on control in Nagatinskaya inter-district prosecutor's office. <...> Do not give or transfer money to strangers. Check the information about the new acquaintance", - warned in the Telegram-channel of the department.

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Earlier, on December 19, the Prosecutor's Office of Russia called a pensioner from Kazan Elena Markelova, whose personal account on the portal "Gosusgoservices" was hacked by fraudsters. As a result, she owed 1 million 900 thousand rubles to two banks. On December 19, the pensioner addressed the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin with this problem in a live broadcast of "The Year's Results". After the appeal, the prosecutor's office contacted Markelova and informed her that it would file a lawsuit in court and the debt would be written off, while the bank would become the victim in the criminal case.