In the Akmola region, an elderly woman fell victim to scammers, losing her home and a large sum of money. The pensioner sold her apartment and handed the proceeds to the fraudsters, reports infohub.kz.
According to the press service of the Akmola Regional Police Department, the incident occurred in the Burabay district, where a case of large-scale internet fraud is being investigated. The victim, a local resident born in 1954, trusted the criminals, sold her apartment, and gave 17 million tenge from the sale to an unknown man.
Law enforcement officials say the scammers contacted the pensioner in April. Initially, they posed as employees of an energy supply company. Under the pretext of processing a necessary service, they convinced the woman to share a code from an SMS message.
After gaining access to the victim's personal data, the criminals continued their psychological manipulation. Later, fake employees of the National Bank and law enforcement agencies joined the conversations. Following the scammers' instructions, the pensioner sold her apartment. After receiving the money from the deal, she handed 17 million tenge to an unknown person who arrived at her courtyard to collect the cash.
The Burabay district police department has opened a criminal case on fraud charges. Investigative and operational measures are underway to establish all circumstances of the crime and identify those involved in organizing and committing the fraudulent acts.
The police remind that scammers often pose as bank employees, government officials, law enforcement, or utility workers. Using various pretexts, they try to obtain personal data, SMS codes, convince citizens to transfer money to so-called safe accounts, or hand cash to a courier. It is important to remember that real bank employees, law enforcement, and government officials never ask for SMS codes, request installation of unknown apps, demand transfers to other accounts, or ask for cash to be given to strangers.