Scammers rent WhatsApp accounts from schoolchildren to call Russians, the Interior Ministry said.
Fraudsters use the accounts of minors located in Russia to commit telephone fraud from the territory of Ukraine. Renting one account costs the attackers $4–8 per hour.
In total, at least 3,000 such platforms have been identified, with a total number of participants in the scheme exceeding 100,000 people.
Accomplices create chats in messengers, where they activate rented accounts and ensure their availability for calls. One of these chats had up to 5,000 participants.
Schoolchildren undergo video verification of their identity: they show their passport, state their full name and date of birth, and also state that they work as "financial managers". For renting an account, they can receive from 80 thousand rubles per month.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs emphasizes that such actions make schoolchildren accomplices in criminal offenses.
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