A single phrase from a police officer dismantled a multi-stage fraud scheme in Rudny, nearly making a local woman a victim of scammers, reports infohub.kz.
According to the press service of the Kostanay Region Police Department, the woman received a morning call from someone claiming to be from an energy company, informing her of an upcoming inspection. To get an "electronic queue" spot, she was asked to provide a code from a message.
"I was busy at work and mistakenly gave the code. After that, I got a call supposedly from the Public Service Center (PSC), saying I had been attacked by fraudsters and now needed to block everything," the woman said.
Then a man claiming to be a cyber police officer got on the line. He convinced her that she needed to block documents and data from eGov, kept her on the line constantly, and demanded she find a second phone. The conversation continued via WhatsApp. The caller did not turn on his camera but sent her various "documents" to try to convince her of his authenticity.
The woman managed to inform a police officer about what was happening using the second phone. He immediately arrived at the scene and personally joined the conversation.
"The scammers practically had the woman 'hooked' and wouldn't disconnect. I introduced myself as a police officer and demanded the caller turn on his camera and show his face. The caller's behavior changed abruptly. As a result, further communication with the fraudsters was stopped," said Yerlan Abdulmanov, head of the Public Security Department of the Rudny Police Department.