An Almaty resident fell victim to scammers who convinced her to hand over a large sum of cash via a courier for supposed 'declaration' purposes — the crime was foiled by an alert delivery driver, reports infohub.kz.
According to the Almaty Police Department, the courier, who received the delivery order, picked up a package containing jeans and several cans from the pensioner. Her behavior seemed suspicious: she evaded questions about the contents. After driving a short distance from the woman's home, the courier decided not to proceed with the delivery and contacted the police.
Officers from the Turksib district immediately arrived at the address. It turned out that shortly before, the pensioner had received a call from scammers. Pretending to be a relative abroad, they persuaded her to hand over all her savings for alleged urgent help. Then, to further mislead her, they mentioned a 'check for undeclared money' and demanded she give the cash for supposed declaration.
Trusting the criminals, the woman hid $3,000 in the pocket of a pair of jeans, placed them in a bag with other items, and gave it to the courier. However, the criminal plan was thwarted thanks to the delivery driver's vigilance and civic responsibility. The money was returned to its owner, and an investigation into the attempted fraud is underway.
Almaty police express sincere gratitude to the courier for his alertness and remind that attentiveness and timely reporting to the police can prevent crime. If your loved ones, especially elderly relatives, receive such calls asking them to urgently hand over money, immediately end the call and report it by calling 102.