More than 16 million tenge from 25 victims of internet fraud ended up in the account of an ordinary student in Semey. According to the Agency for Financial Monitoring, bank cards belonging to six students at a local university were used to transfer and cash out the funds — all have been questioned, reports infohub.kz.
Investigators believe a group was behind the scheme, recruiting money mules — individuals whose accounts were used to transfer and withdraw money from defrauded Kazakh citizens. The group's activities were shut down by the AFM's department for the Abai region.
The funds were deposited into the students' cards, then transferred in small amounts to other accounts and subsequently cashed out. According to the AFM, this allowed them to "conceal their origin and complicate the tracing of financial flows."
Investigators established that the money was sent by victims in internet fraud cases from various regions of Kazakhstan.
"Their geography covers 11 regions of the country: the Abai, Karaganda, Aktobe, Turkistan, Atyrau, West Kazakhstan, Pavlodar, Akmola, Zhambyl, and Almaty regions, as well as the cities of Almaty and Shymkent," the AFM said.
The agency also clarified that the investigation is ongoing and case details are not subject to disclosure.
Earlier, Kursiv reported how scammers launched a new AI-based scheme for Teacher's Day in Kazakhstan.