A 68-year-old Muscovite, Natalya Ivanova, set herself on fire in Moscow as court bailiffs and a property buyer arrived to evict her from her apartment, which she had sold after falling victim to telephone fraudsters.
The resulting fire spread across approximately ten square metres of the residence before emergency services managed to extinguish the flames. Two people were rescued from the building by emergency workers, with one individual requiring hospitalisation.
According to the Russian news channel Baza on Telegram, those injured in the incident included a court bailiff, an enforcement service officer, and Ivanova herself. The court enforcement personnel had arrived at the residence alongside the buyer of the apartment to enforce a judicial eviction order.
Scammers posed as security officers
The incident followed a prolonged ordeal that began several years ago when unknown callers contacted Ivanova while pretending to be representatives of the Federal Security Service, Russia's chief internal security agency, and the Central Bank of Russia. The fraudsters convinced the elderly woman that unauthorized attempts had been made to transfer funds from her bank account to Ukraine.
The callers also falsely informed Ivanova that a forged power of attorney had been executed against her apartment. They instructed her that the only way to help authorities apprehend the alleged criminals was to sell her home and transfer all the proceeds into a supposedly secure bank account.
Impersonation scams involving fraudulent calls from individuals claiming to represent security agencies or financial regulators have become a widespread issue across Russia. Victims are frequently manipulated through intimidation tactics into surrendering life savings or transferring real estate titles under the guise of assisting official investigations.
Enlistment office arson and eviction order
Under directives from the same fraudsters, Ivanova also carried out an arson attack against the Koptevo military enlistment office in Moscow. Following that attack, Russian judicial authorities convicted her of arson and handed down a two-year suspended prison sentence, avoiding immediate incarceration.
Ivanova complied with all instructions given by the scammers, eventually selling her only home in September 2022 to a buyer identified as Nino Tsitlidze. After receiving the funds from the real estate sale, the pensioner transferred the entire amount to the fraudsters.
Following the completion of the transaction, Tsitlidze demanded that Ivanova vacate the premises. When Ivanova refused to leave, Tsitlidze took legal action, and a Russian court subsequently ruled in the buyer's favor, ordering the pensioner to surrender the apartment to its new owner.
