In Vitebsk region, fraudsters intimidated children, forcing them to steal $13,000 from grandmother’s stash

In addition to adults, children are also victims of fraud. In the Vitebsk region, two ten-year-old brothers who called on the phone scammers convinced them to find their grandmother’s stash of money and hand it over to the courier who arrived. Details of the criminal incident on the air of the program “Causes and Effect” on “Radio-Minsk” told the official representative of the Investigative Committee Alexander Sukhodolsky.

"Cause and effect"

On the afternoon of August 31, two ten-year-old cousins were playing at their grandmother’s house. One of the boys received a phone call from an unknown person. The man introduced himself as a mobile operator and proposed to extend the validity of the SIM card. He then persuaded the child to dictate SMS confirmation codes, as well as provide personal details and address of residence.

Immediately after that, the messenger contacted the child allegedly a law enforcement officer. The attacker began to intimidate the children: he said that because of the transferred data, their parents would be imprisoned and deprived of parental rights, the boys themselves would be sent to a shelter, and their grandmother would be searched and all savings would be seized. The only way to “save” the family was supposedly to transfer the savings to the courier.

The fraudster banned students from telling adults what was happening. Maintaining video communication, he demanded to lock the door of the room and search the house under his leadership. Discovering a stash in which 13 thousand dollars were stored, the swindler ordered one of the boys to distract his grandmother, and the second to take the money out on the street and transfer it to the arriving courier.

After a while, parents came for one of the children. When she decided to give her grandson money, she found out there were no dollars. The students told the adults about the incident, describing in detail the appearance of the courier and the car he was driving, and they immediately appealed to the police.

The police established the identity and location of the courier. He was a 23-year-old resident of Shumilino, who himself was the victim of a fraudulent scheme. When law enforcement officers contacted a man who was in Minsk at that time and explained that he was not involved in a “special operation”, but would be deceived by criminals, the young man realized what had happened. He returned to the cache, where he hid the stolen, took the money, then brought it to Polotsk and handed it over to police officers.

On this fact, the Polotsk interdistrict department of the Investigative Committee initiated a criminal case under Part 3 of Article 209 (fraud committed on a large scale) of the Criminal Code.

The investigation is ongoing.