A pensioner from Chelny sold her apartment in Moscow and transferred 20 million to scammers.

      According to law enforcement agencies, a woman lost her home and savings after believing criminals who posed as government officials. A criminal case of large-scale fraud has been initiated in Naberezhnye Chelny, with a 78-year-old resident of the city being the victim. The pensioner lost her apartment in Moscow and all her savings after trusting scammers who pretended to be law enforcement officers. The total amount of damage exceeded 20 million rubles, the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Tatarstan reported. It all began at the start of this year. The woman received a call from alleged law enforcement officers who informed her that her Moscow apartment was being sold illegally. To "protect her property," the scammers convinced her to arrange a deal supposedly with a "front buyer." The apartment was sold for 17 million rubles, after which the pensioner, following the criminals' instructions, withdrew money from her account and handed it over supposedly for "cash collection." At that point, bank employees suspected something was wrong and called the police. Law enforcement explained to the woman that she had fallen victim to a scam and contacted her relatives. It seemed that the story should have ended there. But six months later, the scammers contacted her again. This time, a taxi driver noticed that his elderly passenger was acting strangely and called the police. The arriving officers recognized the woman as the same victim. It turned out that the scammers had persuaded her to sell her apartment in Chelny. The deal was prevented at the last moment, but the 17 million rubles obtained from the Moscow property had already been handed over to the scammers by that time. The investigation revealed that over the course of six months, the criminals had extorted the remaining money from the pensioner under various pretexts. Ultimately, the total damage amounted to about 20 million rubles. A criminal case has been initiated under the article "Fraud on a particularly large scale." The criminals face up to 10 years in prison.