Telephone scammers have tried a scheme to siphon funds from the national air carrier Aeroflot, Izvestia found out. So, they called the company’s chief accountant and, on behalf of the general director, demanded that funds be transferred for allegedly services provided. This story ended with the arrest of the attackers, but it works with other organizations - managers and senior employees of large companies transfer funds on a par with ordinary people, lawyers note. Why this type of fraud has acquired such a large scale and whether it threatens the confidential data of companies - in the Izvestia article.
Millions Saved
The last day of the New Year holidays made Aeroflot airline representatives nervous. As Izvestia’s source in the investigative authorities told, on the evening of January 8, two men contacted the company’s chief accountant by phone and messenger. On behalf of the general director of the carrier, Sergei Aleksandrovsky, they spent an hour convincing her to transfer 15 million rubles to the bank account they specified - “to fulfill a contract for the provision of services with an Aeroflot counterparty.”
“After the attackers received a refusal, they made an appointment for the woman at the airline’s office on Arbat. In order to fulfill the terms of the contract for the provision of services, they asked to transfer to the “counterparty” an amount already three times less - 5 million rubles,” the interlocutor said.
As a result, on January 9 at 21:00, the scammers met in the office not the chief accountant with money, but operatives. Two Armenian citizens born in 1995 and 1996 were detained. The next day, a criminal case was opened against them under Part 3 of Art. 30 and part 4 art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - “Attempted crime”, as well as “Fraud committed by an organized group on an especially large scale.”
Izvestia sent a request to the Aeroflot press service with a request to comment on the situation.
Video call from the “police”
Such cases are not uncommon, and it is not always possible to stop them in time. Thus, the director of JSC National Helicopter Engineering Center named after M.L. Mil and N.I. Kamov" Mikhail Korotkevich also lost a large sum in December 2023, the source said.
He told law enforcement agencies that his manager wrote to him on Telegram and warned that a certain Viktor Lapin would contact him “to ask questions.” It turned out to be a “FSB officer” who said that someone wanted to take out a loan in Mikhail’s name.
A further chain of calls led the man to lose money. Within three hours, he carried out the instructions of the calling “FSB officers” and transferred them about 2 million rubles. Upon receiving a new order - to take out a loan of 20 million rubles - he realized that he had become a victim of criminals and contacted the police.
Last December, the chief specialist of one of the large consulting companies, Svetlana, also transferred 2 million rubles to the scammers, which she took out on credit. The attackers introduced themselves as employees of a cellular communication company, State Services and the Central Bank. During the conversation, the woman lost access to her personal account on State Services.
Another case also occurred at the end of 2023. Then the chief specialist of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAN), Sevil Grabeklis, was defrauded of 1 million rubles by a fraudster in a police uniform, Izvestia’s source previously reported. On December 15, an unknown person told her by phone about allegedly changing the phone number in her personal bank account and trying to take possession of an amount of 800 thousand rubles from her account. After this, a girl in uniform contacted the woman via video call on WhatsApp and announced the initiation of a criminal case. She persuaded Seville Grabeklis to go to the bank and withdraw 1 million rubles from her account, and then put this money into the account of the scammers.
“Leaders are ordinary people”
The chairman of the All-Russian Union of Mediators, Vladimir Kuznetsov, also reminded Izvestia about cases of large-scale telephone fraud.
— In May last year, the head of the money transfer department of one of the large banks was deceived by attackers. They introduced themselves as employees of the Central Bank and convinced the victim to transfer them 3.3 million rubles,” he told Izvestia.
According to the lawyer, in such cases, the negligence of the victims themselves plays a role, as they do not take measures to verify the information provided by the scammers and comply with all their demands.
Experienced managers, accountants and other senior employees are also people with their own weaknesses and psychology, Alexey Gavrishev, managing partner of the law firm AVG Legal, noted in an interview with Izvestia. In addition, a high position does not always indicate professionalism, he believes.
— There is no particular difference from ordinary people. Fraudsters find contacts of managers very easily by purchasing a database of telephone numbers, addresses or data from the traffic police on the market or on the Internet - and for relatively little money, added Alexey Gavrishev.
Most often, telephone fraud is carried out from abroad or calls are made from long-lost SIM cards, which makes it difficult to identify the attackers, the lawyer noted. It is almost impossible to return your funds when withdrawing them to foreign accounts.
At the same time, telephone scammers usually do not pose a threat to confidential data of companies, noted Vladimir Kuznetsov. They are interested specifically in money, since attackers are well aware that obtaining documents and information in this way is associated with a high risk of revealing their identity.
Millions Saved
The last day of the New Year holidays made Aeroflot airline representatives nervous. As Izvestia’s source in the investigative authorities told, on the evening of January 8, two men contacted the company’s chief accountant by phone and messenger. On behalf of the general director of the carrier, Sergei Aleksandrovsky, they spent an hour convincing her to transfer 15 million rubles to the bank account they specified - “to fulfill a contract for the provision of services with an Aeroflot counterparty.”
“After the attackers received a refusal, they made an appointment for the woman at the airline’s office on Arbat. In order to fulfill the terms of the contract for the provision of services, they asked to transfer to the “counterparty” an amount already three times less - 5 million rubles,” the interlocutor said.
As a result, on January 9 at 21:00, the scammers met in the office not the chief accountant with money, but operatives. Two Armenian citizens born in 1995 and 1996 were detained. The next day, a criminal case was opened against them under Part 3 of Art. 30 and part 4 art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - “Attempted crime”, as well as “Fraud committed by an organized group on an especially large scale.”
Izvestia sent a request to the Aeroflot press service with a request to comment on the situation.
Video call from the “police”
Such cases are not uncommon, and it is not always possible to stop them in time. Thus, the director of JSC National Helicopter Engineering Center named after M.L. Mil and N.I. Kamov" Mikhail Korotkevich also lost a large sum in December 2023, the source said.
He told law enforcement agencies that his manager wrote to him on Telegram and warned that a certain Viktor Lapin would contact him “to ask questions.” It turned out to be a “FSB officer” who said that someone wanted to take out a loan in Mikhail’s name.
A further chain of calls led the man to lose money. Within three hours, he carried out the instructions of the calling “FSB officers” and transferred them about 2 million rubles. Upon receiving a new order - to take out a loan of 20 million rubles - he realized that he had become a victim of criminals and contacted the police.
Last December, the chief specialist of one of the large consulting companies, Svetlana, also transferred 2 million rubles to the scammers, which she took out on credit. The attackers introduced themselves as employees of a cellular communication company, State Services and the Central Bank. During the conversation, the woman lost access to her personal account on State Services.
Another case also occurred at the end of 2023. Then the chief specialist of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAN), Sevil Grabeklis, was defrauded of 1 million rubles by a fraudster in a police uniform, Izvestia’s source previously reported. On December 15, an unknown person told her by phone about allegedly changing the phone number in her personal bank account and trying to take possession of an amount of 800 thousand rubles from her account. After this, a girl in uniform contacted the woman via video call on WhatsApp and announced the initiation of a criminal case. She persuaded Seville Grabeklis to go to the bank and withdraw 1 million rubles from her account, and then put this money into the account of the scammers.
“Leaders are ordinary people”
The chairman of the All-Russian Union of Mediators, Vladimir Kuznetsov, also reminded Izvestia about cases of large-scale telephone fraud.
— In May last year, the head of the money transfer department of one of the large banks was deceived by attackers. They introduced themselves as employees of the Central Bank and convinced the victim to transfer them 3.3 million rubles,” he told Izvestia.
According to the lawyer, in such cases, the negligence of the victims themselves plays a role, as they do not take measures to verify the information provided by the scammers and comply with all their demands.
Experienced managers, accountants and other senior employees are also people with their own weaknesses and psychology, Alexey Gavrishev, managing partner of the law firm AVG Legal, noted in an interview with Izvestia. In addition, a high position does not always indicate professionalism, he believes.
— There is no particular difference from ordinary people. Fraudsters find contacts of managers very easily by purchasing a database of telephone numbers, addresses or data from the traffic police on the market or on the Internet - and for relatively little money, added Alexey Gavrishev.
Most often, telephone fraud is carried out from abroad or calls are made from long-lost SIM cards, which makes it difficult to identify the attackers, the lawyer noted. It is almost impossible to return your funds when withdrawing them to foreign accounts.
At the same time, telephone scammers usually do not pose a threat to confidential data of companies, noted Vladimir Kuznetsov. They are interested specifically in money, since attackers are well aware that obtaining documents and information in this way is associated with a high risk of revealing their identity.
