Double phone scam: scammers tricked a couple from Kirov out of nearly 2 million.

      A married couple turned to the police in the Kirov region after becoming victims of telephone scammers. The total damage from the actions of the criminals exceeded 1.9 million rubles. The scammers managed to deceive both spouses by building a multi-layered scheme of psychological pressure.

      The first to fall for the scammers' trick was a 39-year-old woman from Kirov. It all started with a call from an unknown person who introduced himself as an employee of a mobile operator. The caller convinced the woman to dictate a code from an SMS message, supposedly necessary for extending her service contract. As soon as the woman complied with this request, her phone received a notification styled as a message from the "Gosuslugi" portal. It claimed that her personal account had been hacked, and to prevent consequences, she needed to call the number provided.

      The woman followed the instructions. On the other end of the line, they confirmed the information about the hack and switched her to a "specialist from the Central Bank." The fake regulator employee informed her that her personal data was already being used by criminals for unauthorized banking operations. The only way to save her funds, according to the caller, was to transfer all her savings to a so-called "protected account" of the Central Bank.

      Under constant control over the phone, the woman went to an ATM and transferred 1 million 760 thousand rubles to the dictated details. The scammers did not break the connection until she returned home.

      However, the scammers did not stop there. When the woman returned, the caller asked to speak to her 38-year-old husband. Now, the husband was told that he urgently needed to transfer his savings to the same "special account" — supposedly to check if he had also become a victim of the scammers. The man succumbed to the persuasion and transferred 190 thousand rubles to the criminals.

      Only after completing all the transactions did the spouses realize they had been deceived. The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the Kirov region noted that the criminals skillfully combined several legends: hacking the "Gosuslugi" account, substituting an official notification, and the classic scheme with a "safe account." A feature of this case was that the scammers switched to the second family member when they realized that the first victim had exhausted her funds.

      Criminal cases have been initiated regarding the incident under articles on fraud in large and especially large amounts. Police officers are identifying the callers and tracing the chain of recipients of the stolen money. Law enforcement agencies once again urge citizens to be vigilant: employees of banks and government structures never call demanding to transfer money to third-party accounts and do not request codes from SMS. If such calls are received, it is recommended to immediately terminate the conversation.