For considerable sums, they promised their relatives to find or even rescue soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine who disappeared in the combat zone.
The Security Service and the National Police exposed in the Rivne region a fraudulent scheme to extort money from relatives of missing Ukrainian soldiers, which was organized by three inmates of a local correctional colony who were serving sentences for serious crimes.
As the SBU said, the fraudsters found on the Internet, people who are looking for their loved ones, participants in hostilities, and introduced themselves to them as military personnel and for money offered citizens “help” in establishing the whereabouts and state of health of missing soldiers or even their release from captivity.
The cost of such “services” varied from UAH 3 to almost UAH 100,000. Everything depended on the emotional and psychological state of the victims and their financial capabilities.
The fraudsters asked to transfer the money to the bank cards of an acquaintance of one of the prisoners. At the same time, after receiving the funds, the perpetrators stopped communicating with the victim and did not contact him again.
They planned their schemes based on posts in thematic communities of social networks, where they found information about the wanted soldiers, and entered into private correspondence with their relatives. They conducted their activities through fake accounts.
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During searches of the place of execution and the address of the residence of an acquaintance of one of the prisoners, the law enforcement officers seized:
- mobile phones and tablets;
- almost two dozen SIM cards of different mobile operators, on which fake accounts were registered and from which the perpetrators called the victims;
- five bank cards on which money came from the victims;
- draft records with evidence of illegal activity.
The investigation to bring the culprits to justice is still ongoing. Art. 190 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (fraud).
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We remind you that all activities related to the search for missing Ukrainian soldiers and their release from captivity are carried out by the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War and the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine .
