A 69-year-old pensioner in the resort city of Sochi has lost two apartments and 93 million rubles after falling victim to a scheme conducted over several months by telephone fraudsters. Prosecutors in Sochi reported that the woman handed over all proceeds from the real estate sales to couriers after callers impersonated law enforcement officials.
The fraudulent scheme began when the victim disclosed a confidential code received via text message during her very first telephone conversation with the scammers. Following that initial call, fake law enforcement officers contacted the pensioner and falsely informed her that unauthorized individuals were attempting to steal her bank savings.
Unable to withstand persistent threats of criminal prosecution and police searches, the woman agreed to sell her first apartment, which was valued at 40 million rubles. She subsequently handed the entire cash proceeds from the sale to a courier sent by the fraudsters under the pretense of safeguarding her money.
Fake law enforcement scheme
The scammers then persuaded the victim to dispose of her remaining property. She sold her second apartment for 53 million rubles and again surrendered the full cash amount directly to a delivery person acting on behalf of the fraudsters.
The pensioner contacted the police only after the perpetrators stopped communicating with her. Prosecutors confirmed that her total financial loss across the two property sales amounted to 93 million rubles.
Sochi is a coastal resort city in Krasnodar Krai, a region in southwestern Russia also known as Kuban. Regional law enforcement agencies have repeatedly warned the public about phone scams targeting property owners through coercion and impersonation of security forces.
Similar real estate fraud
The incident in Sochi follows a similar real estate scam reported in Syzran, a city in Russia's Samara Oblast. In that case, an elderly female resident was targeted in a fraud scheme built around property sales, resulting in a total loss of two million rubles.
