In the Kemerovo Region of Russia, a woman residing in Novokuznetsk has fallen prey to a fraudulent scheme involving cryptocurrency.
Despite being an economist herself, the 54-year-old victim took out loans and mortgaged her apartment to invest 6.7 million rubles in what she thought was a reliable trading platform.
The scam began when a man claiming to be a representative of a large energy company approached her and offered her an opportunity to earn additional income by investing in cryptocurrency.
Eager to make repairs on her apartment and purchase a cottage, the woman agreed and downloaded an application on her phone to transfer the funds.
The scammers even went as far as providing her with a week-long investment course to make it all seem legitimate. After successfully transferring 6.7 million rubles over a month and a half, the woman realized she had been scammed and contacted the police.
Authorities have since opened a criminal case under article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which carries a potential sentence of up to ten years in prison for the fraudsters.
However, the likelihood of finding the perpetrators is uncertain, as was the case of a similar cryptocurrency scammer from Krasnodar who was only recently apprehended after defrauding a 22-year-old resident of the Volgograd region for 1 million rubles.