The scammer sent the woman to deposit half a million in a Bitcoin ATM

Detectives are investigating another case of a fake banker

We repeatedly report cases where people come across fraudsters posing as bank employees or even police officers and send them all their savings. Another such case, in which a woman almost lost nearly half a million crowns, is now being investigated by Pilsen criminal investigators.

“An as yet unknown offender contacted an elderly woman on Monday, October 23, when he introduced himself on the phone as a bank employee, saying that he would like to negotiate with her favorable conditions for a loan of 250,000 crowns, which she should have applied for herself. The woman responded by saying, that she did not apply for any credit and that she also has an account with another bank.
So the worker fictitiously connected her to an employee of another banking company and subsequently to the “security department”. There, the woman was advised to block her account, given that someone is probably acting under her name. Subsequently, another employee of the department advised her to withdraw 490,000 crowns from her account, put the money into a Bitcoin ATM and then convert it into cryptocurrency. The explanation was that this is the best way to protect your money from a possible attack by a fraudster.” the police spokeswoman described this frequent fraud to us, saying that the fraudsters even sent various documents to the woman’s e-mail to activate an electronic account.

The woman followed the fraudsters’ instructions, withdrew a large amount from her account and headed to the designated Bitcoin ATM. Fortunately, at the last moment, she realized the senselessness of her actions, even that it was probably a fraud, and reported the whole matter to the police. This saved her savings of almost half a million.

“The police commissioner has initiated criminal proceedings in the matter on suspicion of committing the offense of fraud committed in the attempted stage,” added the police spokesperson.

Police warn:

The police repeatedly warn you not to respond to similar phone calls, not to share your bank account, online banking or payment card information with anyone, or to allow anyone remote access to your computer.
Fraudsters can imitate not only a phone number, but also, for example, an e-mail address. Therefore, do not respond to any invitations to withdraw cash and possibly deposit it into other accounts or according to instructions given over the phone to buy cryptocurrency.
If you have any doubts, contact your bank immediately or call 158.

Photo: illustrative