The incidents come as public interest in cryptocurrency grows in Russia, extending to questions about pensions, mining income, and social benefits.
A 46-year-old woman in the western Russian city of Kursk has lost 28 million rubles to a crypto investment scam executed in a year’s time frame, per a report published by the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs on Monday.
The woman, whose name was not disclosed, first made contact with the scammer through a messaging application, claiming to be living in an Arab country. The fraudulent actor managed to convince the Russian resident that he was well-informed about making crypto investments.
He told the victim she could earn profits by following his instructions, which started with downloading a specific mobile application.
Speaking to local news outlets, Russian security officials said the man promised high returns and guided the woman step by step, encouraging her to transfer money in crypto. The investigators also mentioned that the fraudster took a year to build trust and increase the amounts he received from the victim.
As the scheme progressed, the victim reportedly exhausted her personal savings as she dug deeper into her savings with the promise of higher returns, a scamming method known as pig butchering.
“She sold three apartments, a car, a gold bar, and took out bank loans and borrowed money from acquaintances to raise more funds, convinced that future returns would cover the losses,” the authorities explained.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs said that the scammer deleted all of the victim’s conversation data and cut off all contact with her once she ran out of money. The disappearance prompted the woman to approach law enforcement.
The IA ministry has been investigating several other incidents reported in other regions.
A woman in Kirov Oblast lost more than 2 million rubles after believing investment promises from falsified cryptocurrency exchanges. Much like the Kursk victim, she was persuaded that her funds would generate steady profits, but later on discovered the platforms and contacts were fraudulent.
Another victim, a 63-year-old man from the city of Kirov, lost about 3 million rubles after interacting with scammers via a messenger service in late July. The perpetrator, who introduced himself as a financial consultant with an “easy and profitable way to earn money through crypto trading,” in exchange for a 20% share of the profits.
The man agreed, registered on a fraudulent trading platform, and transferred funds to accounts specified by the unknown contact. Russian Police said he invested his own savings and later added borrowed money, taking the total amount transferred to 2,981,000 rubles.
Similar cases have been featured in neighboring countries like Belarus, where a 23-year-old Minsk resident contacted the Sovetsky District Police Department after realizing she could not withdraw funds she had “earned.”
According to her statement, the woman encountered an advertisement on a social media platform, and upon following the link, she left her phone number and was contacted by someone who introduced himself as an analyst from an investment platform.
The woman registered on a specialized website and, over two months, transferred about 50k rubles to an electronic wallet. When she attempted to withdraw her earnings, the fake analyst demanded more deposits, which led her to suspect fraud and contact the police.
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