In Minsk, instead of increasing the pension, a woman lost all her savings

A pensioner in Minsk believed that she had to recalculate her pension, and in the end she lost 9,000. This was reported in the interior Ministry, writes sb.by.

The Minsk police receive applications from elderly citizens who became victims of telephone scammers posing as employees of the Social Protection Fund, social protection bodies or pension departments. Attackers inform citizens about the alleged recalculation of pensions, verification of insurance experience or appointment of additional payments. Under various pretexts, they try to obtain personal data, bank details and confirmation codes from SMS.

- In one case, a 68-year-old Minsk woman addressed the police. The woman answered a call from a false employee of the social protection authorities, believed that she was supposed to recalculate pension payments. To design it, strangers asked to name the number of the pension certificate and dictate the code from the SMS. After that, the fraudsters told the Minsk woman that she could allegedly be recognized as a suspect in a criminal case about cooperation with scammers. To save her savings from an alleged search, the woman agreed to declare them. However, instead of applying to the tax authority, the pensioner put the money in a package and left in the park under a tree, as the attackers told. As a result, the woman lost almost 9 thousand, – said the Deputy head of the Criminal Code of the police Department of Minsk Dmitry Shevelev.

The police reminded that employees of the FSZN, pension departments, law enforcement officers do not require by phone to report codes from SMS, bank card data, passwords and other confidential information:

- If you are told about the recalculation of pension payments, seniority check or additional accruals, do not follow the instructions of unknown interlocutors. Independently contact the relevant state body at the official phone number and clarify the information. In Gomel, vigilant realtors saved a pensioner from selling an apartment – the money was intended for fraudsters

Minchanin found an advertisement on the sale of spare parts and made an advance payment - scammers became richer by 4,000.

In Belarus, three couriers of telephone fraudsters were detained per day – 40 thousand were seized from them.