The ordeal began when the victim responded to an advertisement on the social network Odnoklassniki, offering guidance on making money through cryptocurrencies. Subsequently, the victim was contacted by an individual on the Telegram messenger, claiming to be associated with an investment company that could provide profitable cryptocurrency trading lessons. To proceed, the resident of Kyzyl was instructed to download Skype, followed by the installation of the ByBit and Coinbase Wallet applications.
Intriguingly, the scammers introduced real cryptocurrency applications to the victim. However, their scheme involved directing the victim to transfer $5,000 in order to gain access to a VIP trading group. Determined, the resident of Kyzyl took out a bank loan and transferred 445,000 rubles to the specified account, despite being warned by a bank employee about the likelihood of it being a scam.
“After this, the victim was added to a Telegram group, where her “mentor” insisted on another $5,000 to be deposited into the previously installed platform in order to begin earning. Once again, the victim went to the bank and acquired two more loans totaling 595,000 rubles, which were then transferred as directed by the same “analyst” to an unfamiliar account,” report the law enforcement agencies of Tuva.
However, this was not enough. In order to “truly earn money,” another $5,000 was demanded from the woman. Unfortunately, the resources of the Kyzyl resident were exhausted. Desperate, she emptied her credit card and obtained loans from microfinance organizations, managing to scrape together an additional 145,000 rubles. With the assistance of the “analyst,” she deposited the funds into the Bybit platform (although it is unclear whether it was her own account). Subsequently, the scammers ceased all contact with the victim.
Consequently, the 51-year-old resident of Kyzyl suffered a loss of 1,185,000 rubles. Currently, investigators are pursuing a case under Part 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, classifying it as “Fraud committed on an especially large scale.”
This incident is parallel to previous similar fraudulent schemes where two residents of the Trans-Baikal Territory collectively lost around 5 million rubles in February.