According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, two citizens have been detained in Moscow on suspicion of fraud using a complex scheme to deceive metro passengers. A girl approached a passenger with a request to use the phone for an urgent call, taking advantage of the victims' trust.
Meanwhile, an accomplice, upon receiving an incoming call, used the number to log in to a real estate rental site. The girl, unnoticed by the phone owner, copied the SMS code received from the bank and deleted it. Having seized the profile, the fraudsters placed fake ads for renting housing in Moscow.
Photos of apartments in other cities were used for illustration. When potential tenants called, they were offered to make an advance payment immediately under the pretext of high demand.
The attackers also used a scheme with cryptocurrency: giving the victim from the housing rental platform the details of the cryptocurrency seller's account. The victim, thinking that he was transferring a deposit for an apartment, paid for the purchase of cryptocurrency, which immediately went to the scammers' online wallet.
During a search at the residence of the detainees, mobile phones, bank cards and other items of evidentiary value were seized. The defendants have been taken into custody.