Watching videos on TikTok cost a resident of the Akmola region 3 million tenge. The man, believing in promising investments, fell victim to scammers and became a drop, according to infohub.kz.
According to the press service of the regional police department, the Arshaly district police department is investigating a case of online fraud under the guise of investing in a fake company. A resident of one of the local villages fell for the widespread scheme.
The man first saw an advertisement about the opportunity to earn money through investments on TikTok. The offer to invest in the oil refining industry and receive income interested him, and without suspecting fraud, he registered on the specified platform and made an initial deposit.
Over several months, the Akmola resident transferred money to the scammers. In total, he invested about 3 million tenge, including a loan and personal savings.
To maintain the client's trust, the fraudsters displayed fictitious information in his personal account about dividend payments and income growth. Creating the appearance of successful investments, they convinced the man to continue investing money.
When the victim's own funds ran out, the scammers offered him another way to "earn." Under the pretext of conducting financial transactions, they requested the bank details of all his cards. After that, money from third parties began to arrive in his accounts, which he, unaware of the criminal scheme, transferred to other accounts at the direction of the fraudsters.
Subsequently, banks blocked his cards, and the man himself came to the attention of cyber police in another region as a possible drop—a person whose bank accounts are used to transfer and cash out stolen funds.
The police note that this scheme shows that the consequences of interacting with online scammers may not be limited to the loss of one's own money. Without suspecting the criminal intentions of the fraudsters, a person can become a participant in illegal financial transactions and bear responsibility for it.