A pensioner got back the apartment she had sold at the behest of phone scammers.

      The Leninsky District Prosecutor’s Office in Kirov conducted an investigation into a fraud against a 67-year-old local woman. It turned out that unknown callers phoned her and, under the pretext of protecting her funds from “scammers,” persuaded her to sell her only apartment, valued at 2.8 million rubles. The pensioner signed fake documents, not suspecting she was dealing with fraudsters. She transferred the proceeds from the sale to a so-called “safe” account, which was controlled by the criminals. Investigative authorities opened a criminal case under Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Fraud on a particularly large scale”). Without waiting for the investigation to conclude, the prosecutor filed a suit in court seeking to have the apartment sale contract and all its consequences declared invalid. The court granted the claim, and the property was returned to the owner. The prosecutor’s office clarified that the criminal investigation is ongoing and its progress is being monitored.