The woman believed the fraudsters and put the money in the Bitcoin ATM. She lost 5.5 million

A 78-year-old woman from Prague lost approximately 5.5 million crowns, who were supposed to be deceived by fake bankers. According to the police, the storyteller believed that someone was taking out loans in her name and that the money was in danger. Therefore, she put all the finances into a bitcoin mat.

The injured 78-year-old woman was supposed to be contacted in mid-October by a fake bank clerk Mrs. Š. from Liberec regarding a loan in the amount of a quarter of a million crowns. The senior woman allegedly had to come personally to the branch because of him.

The official subsequently added that she should have wanted to take out the loan in Teplice as well. “Subsequently, she added trumps in the form of the name, the damaged surname, and her ID number, which she should have given when applying for loans,” said police spokesman Jan Rybanský.

Immediately, she also stated that if the woman was nowhere, it was probably a criminal act. She then hung up the phone. The senior woman was therefore waiting to see what would happen next. “Within a moment, a colleague of Ms. Š. contacted her, Mr. Tomáš introduced himself as an employee of the bank’s security department and informed the victim that this was certainly a criminal offense of misuse of security data, but he knew how to get out of it and would be happy to help her not lose the money, ” Rybanský described.

The person in question advised her to install the Viber application, through which they would communicate with each other. Subsequently, a certain David called from the same number, who said that Tomáš had to attend to another customer with the same problem. The man spoke perfect Czech and suggested two options to the woman.

“Either he will block his accounts, but the unblocking may take seven months to seven years before everything is resolved, or he will withdraw all the money and send it via Bitcoinmat to the headquarters, which will create reserve accounts for the victim for this purpose,” added Rybanský.

The senior woman believed everything, and since she could not live without money, she chose the second option. During the following days, she sent almost 5.5 million crowns via Bitcoinmat.

In addition, David was supposed to instruct her and send QR codes to deposit money. “If the financial limit for depositing into a Bitcoin ATM was exceeded, the woman was directed to a Bitcoin ATM in another part of Prague,” said Rybanský.

Police are investigating the case as a hoax. If caught and proven guilty, the perpetrator faces up to eight years in prison.

Banks do not communicate through applications

According to the police, it is best to end the suspicious call, not to communicate in any way and to verify the information directly with your bank. “Employees in the banking sector do not communicate via mobile applications, nor do they ever request to carry out such transactions, i.e. for anyone to cancel the account and send the collected money somewhere,” pointed out Rybanský.

Police officers warn of a new wave of fraud. You will learn more in the following report (10/2023):

TN.cz