The young and the marginalized: How scammers lure teens into crime
Fraudsters have become more active in using children and teenagers in schemes to defraud Russians. Most often they are "hired" as couriers and droppers, said the platform "Moshelovka". "Izvestia" found out how criminals find children and push them to crimes, what responsibility for this threatens and how to protect teenagers.
"Worked for a percentage."
Fraudsters have become more likely to use children in criminal schemes. The most common are courier and dropshipping, the anti-fraud platform Moshelovka told Izvestia.
One such story in late January took place in Tver. There, police detained a 17-year-old college student who worked as a part-time courier for fraudsters. The teenager was hired by unknown people who called Russians and lured them out of money. Their victims were two elderly women aged 93 and 90, who have the status of children of war, and a 72-year-old pensioner. Each was persuaded that her relative had caused a traffic accident and needed a large sum of money to absolve them of responsibility and treat the victims.
"A young man came to the old people for money. Following the instructions of the "ringers", the victims collected savings and handed over to the courier right on the landing of the house. The student's job was to credit the cash to his card and transfer it to the accounts of his remote handlers. For this he received a reward in the form of a small percentage of the amount received from deceived pensioners", - told in the management of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the region.
They added that the fraudsters managed to swindle the women out of 300 thousand rubles to 1.3 million rubles. The student spent the interest received on buying a phone, computer upgrades and entertainment. He admitted that he was going to "work" in this way and further, but now the teenager faces up to five years of imprisonment.
In early January, a similar story happened in St. Petersburg - there detained a 16-year-old teenager who received 300 thousand rubles from a woman to give to fraudsters. And in November - another schoolboy courier, he took more than $17.5 thousand and €1120 from a pensioner. The teenager said that he came to the pensioners to transfer money to the swindlers at least five times. All instructions for "work" were sent to him in messenger.
How scammers use children
Scammers use children and teenagers in their schemes not only because they can be "cheap labor". Children are easier to deceive because of their naivety and inexperience, they can be easily manipulated and convinced of anything. At the same time, teenagers are unable to assess the consequences of their behavior and actions, are not ready to bear responsibility, says Alexandra Pozharskaya, an expert of the People's Front project "For the Rights of Borrowers" and the platform "Moshelovka".
- Children, for the most part, are infantile: they know that there are a lot of people, from parents or guardians to police, rescuers and human rights defenders, who will help them and solve their problems. So they do not hesitate to publish sensitive information about themselves, share their and their parents' data with strangers. And they may agree to dubious offers," says the Izvestia interlocutor.
According to her, criminals usually find underage accomplices on the Internet - in social networks and messengers, game chat rooms. There they can both directly offer a teenager a "job" and deceive him or her into criminal activity.
For example, explains psychologist Elena Masolova, they can build a friendly relationship with children, take an interest in them, replacing parental care, and then "ask for help". Some teenagers are manipulated "on weakness" or offered to join a closed community to solve "adult issues", to earn money.
- Sometimes communication takes place under the guise of a game, performing simple tasks. Often the child does not even realize that his actions fall under the articles of the Criminal Code, - adds lawyer Sean Betrozov.
Unchildish schemes
Sean Betrozov, speaking to Izvestia, calls the use of children in fraud one of the most alarming trends of recent times. According to him, such cases are becoming more and more common, and both children and parents can be held responsible.
According to the lawyer, one of the most common ways of involving children in criminal schemes is the so-called dropperism. In fraudulent circles, a "dropper" is a person for whom a bank card or SIM card is registered or asked to use their own for a simple transaction.
- The teenager may be asked to withdraw money from this card at an ATM and pass it on to a third party for a small fee. At first glance, this may seem like a part-time job, but in practice the child becomes an accomplice in financial fraud, for example, cashing out money obtained through telephone fraud," Betrozov explains.
Another popular method is the use of minors as couriers, as was the case in Tver and St. Petersburg. In such cases, the function of "recipients of money" is often performed by teenagers: they do not always receive a percentage of the "transaction," but may believe that they are helping pensioners for a small reward.
In addition, says the lawyer, it is profitable for fraudsters to cooperate with children on the Internet. In social networks there are offers of easy earnings, requiring only the transfer of money or the fulfillment of small errands. In this way, teenagers can unwittingly participate in money laundering schemes, fake sales or become involved in the distribution of malware and account hacking. Especially dangerous are cases when children are involved in cryptocurrency schemes, which are more difficult for law enforcement to track.
However, there are also more dangerous scenarios in which children may be involved. Alexandra Pozharskaya refers to them as calls for arson and bombings, and the commission of violence. Also, sometimes criminals stage the kidnapping of a child to get a ransom from his parents, or, on the contrary, tell children that something has happened to adults and ask them to take all the money and valuables out of the house.
Responsibility - child and adult
As Sean Betrozov explains, under Russian law, criminal liability comes from the age of 16, and for some articles, more serious and obvious, from 14. However, if a child performed obviously criminal actions, even without realizing their nature, it can be considered as innocent infliction of harm.
- In cases where a minor has reached the age of responsibility, but did not understand the nature of his actions, it is possible to reclassify the case or release from punishment with the application of educational measures," notes the Izvestiya interlocutor.
According to the lawyer, sometimes parents can also be held liable, especially if it is proved that they knew or could have known about their child's illegal actions. For example, if a minor used a bank card issued to one of the parents and conducted suspicious transactions, law enforcement agencies may initiate a check on the entire family.
- If it is found that the parents were negligent in their upbringing, they may be held administratively liable for improper fulfillment of their duties to raise a minor," Betrozov concludes.
Child protection
In order to protect children from criminals, experts advise to observe what the child is doing and hobbies, with whom he communicates on the Web. On the technical side, you can use parental control programs (if the child is young), set up the privacy of his or her accounts by closing them from outsiders and prohibiting them from calling and writing messages.
Moshelovka expert Alexandra Pozharskaya urges parents to build a trusting relationship with their child and show them the rules of safety by personal example.
- If we ourselves double-check any information, use protective solutions, take care of data security, regularly update passwords, discuss news about fraudulent schemes, threats and consequences in the family, do not trust other people with our cell phones and computers, tell them where we keep our documents, cash and jewelry, then our children, seeing this every day, will learn to behave in this way. It will become a learned habit, almost a reflex," says Pozharskaya.
In addition, she adds, it is important to foster critical thinking and the ability to assess risks and probable consequences. Informed that not everything said or written is true, the teenager, at least, will not immediately rush to transfer money to strangers from daddy's card or give passwords.
Psychologist Elena Masolova reminds that it is important for parents to keep in constant contact with the child, to give all the necessary care and support, so that he does not look for it from strangers. And with any problem could come exactly to family members.
If the child has already been involved in a fraudulent scheme, Sean Betrozov advises to immediately contact a lawyer. It is important to give truthful testimony, explain the circumstances in which the minor was part of the criminal plan, and minimize the possible consequences. In some cases, it may be possible to prove that the child was misled, which can play a decisive role in the proceedings.
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