Court, police or bank? Where to go if money is stolen from your card

The legislation of the Russian Federation clearly establishes that fraud (this is how it would be correct to call the situation if you were deceived out of money) is a real crime, the responsibility for which is established by the Criminal Code. To be precise, fraud is the theft (theft) of someone else’s property or obtaining the right to it by deception. The “skill” of modern criminals knows no bounds; you can encounter it both in real life and in the virtual world, but the most offensive thing is that in the latter case, the money that is defrauded from a person turns out to be real.

Anyone can become a victim of fraud, and it is difficult to predict when and where deception awaits you, but it is possible and necessary to figure out what to do if you were deceived for money without panic and hysterics, then there is a chance to find the fraudster and bring him to justice law.

Common options for how someone can deceive you for money on the Internet

One of the most common ways to deceive people today is Internet fraud, and there are many ways:

• auctions (the victim allegedly wins the auction, dreaming of receiving an exclusive product, transfers money to the specified account, but never receives the purchase directly);
• super promotions (products are offered incredibly low prices, which is explained by the arrival of a new collection, but you need to make an advance payment before your transfer reaches the seller’s account, the item you are interested in is sold, and no one wants to return the money);
• committing fraudulent transactions with bank and credit cards (transferring funds without the owner’s consent);
• deliberately false delivery of the order (one product was promised to the buyer and paid for by him, and in return he received a cheap fake or a completely wrong thing, which they do not want to exchange).

These are just some of the examples with the help of which many people have been defrauded of money today, but it is impossible to list them all, since fraud in the virtual world is developing even more rapidly than in real life. There are many paid services and shops here, but they are often joined.

Fraud by a legal entity - go to court

If the terms of the contract are not fulfilled by an actual legal entity, you should go to court. True, you first need to carry out the claim work, otherwise your claim will not be accepted. Send your claim by registered mail with acknowledgment of receipt and a list of the contents. After the legal deadline for responding has expired, file a claim with the court.

The result may vary. Counterparties may refer to force majeure circumstances; often scammers go into hiding and do not participate in such matters. In any case, it is extremely difficult to protect your interests without involving a lawyer in the case. The lawyer's fees during the trial can be reimbursed by the defendant, including this amount in the list of legal expenses.

Variants of popular scams in real life

A huge number of scams occur in the real world. One of the most common is a call or SMS to the mother/grandmother’s phone, with information that a relative is supposedly in trouble (he hit a person, got into a drunken fight, etc.), and urgently needs to transfer money to such and such phone number. It happens that the “representative” of law enforcement agencies himself calls, reporting the threat of a criminal case in order to “hush up” it, which requires a certain amount of money.

They cheat you out of money by taking an advance payment for goods and services that you definitely won’t receive; they come up with various lotteries and pyramids. It is not uncommon to receive congratulations on winning a car because you are an active user of a gas station or mobile operator, but to receive a prize you need to transfer a certain amount for expenses and registration (which, accordingly, is not the case). The list of such scams can also be continued for a long time.

How to recognize a scammer?

1. Intrusive calls at any time of the day.
There is a known case where a fraudulent broker treated a woman this way for several months before she transferred her money. Remember: a professional and honest broker or financial trader will never impose his services over the phone. Clients look for a good specialist themselves. 2. Calls come from a mobile or hidden number. Keep in mind that a serious brokerage company always has a single telephone number - federal or local.

3. The promise of fabulous profits from invested funds in a short time - 10–20% or more per week or month. Moreover, no broker can guarantee 100% profit. Investing is always a risky activity.

4. Refusal to provide the website address of the brokerage company. Lack of information about her on the Internet. Or there is no information on the company’s website about the owner of the company, legal address or contact information.

5. Refusal to provide license information or lack thereof. Every organization that professionally carries out transactions in financial markets and with financial instruments using borrowed funds is required to have a license1. You can check whether a company has a license on the website of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation.

If a broker company is registered abroad and operates without a license from the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, it is an offshore organization operating outside the legal framework of our country. After signing an agreement with such a broker, if your rights are violated, you will not be able to defend your interests on Russian territory.

6. The broker refuses to meet in the office and conclude a brokerage agreement. It offers to quickly open an account without checking your documents and assures that it is enough to create a personal account on the website.

What should someone who has been scammed out of money do?

If you have been deceived by scammers and, through cunning or outright deception, have taken possession of money to which they have no right, in no case should you hush up this fact. Even if the amount is small. You should definitely contact the police, and the sooner this is done, the greater the chances of protecting your interests and the fewer the number of subsequent victims. This path is suitable for all types of deception:

• for victims of scams in real life;
• for online fraud.

There is another option, but directly related to cases of fraud on the Internet - this is an appeal to the Bureau of Special Technical Measures, which is a special unit of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but specifically deals with Internet fraud. You can find out the contact number in your city's help desk or by contacting your provider.

Attention! The portal owner should be informed about the fraud.

What to answer to scammers: 11 phrases from the experience of our readers

1. The card is no longer serviced

Elena Lobach: “They called me about a transaction from my card to another bank, I answered: “Sorry, but my card with the number... is no longer serviced.” And they had no words. I caught them in their ignorance of the card information.”

2. Yes, I translated it

Mimicry: “I have already “transferred money” to someone several times. They call and say there was a suspicious movement between accounts. Did I transfer the Nth amount to... I don’t remember who. And I agree, I agree. I translated, I say, I know him. And sometimes I just say: “Thank you, I’m just going to the bank now, I’ll find out, thanks for the information.”

3. Now I’ll check it myself

Skvar dig lion: “They called too. I politely replied, yes, of course, I’ll check everything now and continue. They hung up immediately :).”

4. How is this possible? I have 500 thousand on my card for my granddaughter for a car

Oleg Romanov: “I trolled them several times. They called one day and said that they were debiting money from the card. But I pretended to be an old grandfather, began to lisp and said: “Grandson, how can this be? I have a pension there - not a pension, but a pension (as old grandmothers say) - forty thousand, and on another card it’s 500 thousand, I’m saving for a car for my granddaughter.” You know how they caught fire. A junior specialist called and was immediately switched to a senior specialist. That was a laugh. The girl turned out to be a senior specialist and asked me: “Grandfather, do you use the online account?” Me: “Daughter, what is a cabinet line? This is when you come to the bank, take a coupon, and there are the same daughters sitting behind a fence, is this an office line?” Everyone was just freaking out. She says: "No." She began to explain to me long and tediously. Then he says: “You need to go through verification.” There is no such concept in the bank at all. They don't use it. I'm asking what vartification is. In short, I trolled them for about thirty minutes. She tells me: “Grandpa, talk to the robot.” I ask: “How? A robot is not a person. Come on, I say, daughter, I’ll tell you everything you need on the map.” She told me: “Only to the robot. I’m switching.” I got tired of trolling them, when they switched to a robot, I said in a normal voice: “Who do you want to deceive? A man who has worked in finance all his life...” They didn’t even let me finish. We had a lot of fun."

5. Let them steal, don’t interfere

Nina: “Today I called and introduced myself as some police officer, and in response I said:

• What, are they stealing my money?
• Yes.
• Let me go, don't interfere.

He passed out)))

They call two or three times a day, more often I press “hang up.”

6. I come up with card details

Nikolai K .: “I like to talk with them when I have time. Even those storytellers. Just don’t need to report or confirm anything. But if you want to have some fun, you can give them data from the “ceiling”. When they realize they are in the wrong place, they get so nervous.”

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7. Turn on the radio at full volume

Alina: “When someone introduces themselves as bank employees, I go up to the radio, bring my cell phone closer and turn it on at full power. They switch off immediately."

8. You are not from Sberbank

Svetlana Gr : “And once an inexperienced and incompetent fraudster called me, introduced himself as a Sberbank manager, and the number was with a Moscow code. I immediately answered him that you are not from Sberbank. When I heard the answer, I laughed out loud: “How did you know that I wasn’t from the bank?”

9. Please provide the contract number

Valentina Chesnokova : “About a month ago a guy called me and said that he was an employee of Sberbank. He said that seven minutes ago I allegedly tried to make some kind of translation. I replied that I didn’t do anything and that I was not a client of Sberbank. He assured me that I had allegedly issued a debit card at Sberbank less than a month ago. I asked him to give his full name and the contract number under which he is an employee of Sberbank, after which he hung up.”

10. You called the prosecutor's office

Marina Klimova : “And I’m kidding, I say: “Dear, you’re not mistaken, this is the prosecutor’s office.” The scammers hang up in a second!”

11. I read out Article 159.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation

Egor Bozhenkov : “They called me in September. I simply started reading to them Article 159.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Fraud using bank cards”). And they hung up on the second part of this article))).”

How a pensioner from Chelyabinsk outwitted scammers and persuaded them to pay for communications

Scammers tried to call a 70-year-old pensioner from Chelyabinsk. There were a lot of calls, she didn’t want to answer the phone. After some time, she could not stand it and decided to answer.

The caller reported that they tried to hack the woman's bank account. And he carefully asked how much money was there? “I named the first amount that came to mind - eight million. At the same time, about 50 ₽ remained in the account. Then the interlocutor began to rush,” she says.

Then the woman warned that she was running out of money on her phone because all her incoming calls were paid. After this, the scammers transferred 500 rubles to the pensioner’s account so that she could continue the conversation.

“Then the same “employee” called back and cheerfully said that the trust and safety of customers was paramount to him, and again suggested going to the ATM. But I wasn’t going to go anywhere and asked again which bank he represented. When he called, I pretended to be sclerotic and said that eight million were in another bank, and they only had 50 rubles,” the woman added. In response, the scammer swore and hung up.

Citizen, tell me the code from SMS: how to distinguish a scammer’s call from a police call

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How to properly write a statement to submit to the police

The first thing anyone who has been defrauded of money needs to do is write a statement to the police. This document does not have a specific form, but it must be drawn up in accordance with the general rules for the preparation of such documents, indicating:

• name of the authority to which the appeal is sent;
• personal information (full name, address, contact phone number);
• the main text in which you ask to conduct an investigation into the fraud that occurred and bring the fraudster to justice;
• that you are aware of the liability for false denunciation;
• date, signature.

In the main text it is necessary to describe what happened, detailing how you met the scammer, how the event occurred and what the amount of damage was. If you were defrauded of money using an online resource, then you should indicate which portal you communicated on and everything that is known about the scammer (for example, his network name on the portal, auction ID, etc.).

The application should be accompanied by all materials that are somehow related to this situation (printouts of email correspondence, photographs, screenshots, a copy of the agreement (if drawn up), transfer receipts or history of bank transactions, and so on). In general, everything that will help prove you are right and find scammers.

Types of fraud

According to Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the following types of fraud committed are distinguished:

• individually without the use of official position;
• by a group of persons on the basis of preliminary agreements;
• a person who used his official position;
• in the form of deliberate failure to fulfill its contractual obligations.

The punishment for fraud also depends on the amount of damage that was caused to the victim. The types of damage are as follows:

• significant - more than five thousand rubles;
• large - over two hundred and fifty thousand rubles;
• especially large – one million or more.

If a criminal case has been initiated

A criminal case can be initiated based on the commission of a crime and against a specific person or persons. You are better off insisting on the second option: things go faster when there is a victim and a suspect.

If a criminal case is initiated based on the commission of a crime, it may be suspended after the investigation or inquiry has expired for an indefinite period. And if a case is initiated against a specific person, then the investigator or interrogator is obliged to choose a preventive measure for the suspect. And here the deadlines require a relatively quick transfer of the case to a criminal court.

You have the right to file a civil claim in a criminal case. You can demand not only to recover material damages from the deceiver, but also to compensate you for moral damages from the crime.

What evidence do you need to collect?

Once you have realized that you have become a victim of fraud and have decided to contact the police or consumer protection authorities, you should collect all available evidence of the fraud committed, as well as all information you have about the offender.

Such evidence may be:

1. Receipts, checks and other documents confirming payment for services, purchase of goods, transfer of funds to another bank account or electronic wallet.
2. Checks and receipts from courier services (if you received a low-quality product after paying a considerable amount of money for it).
3. Video and audio recordings of all conversations with the attackers, as well as photographs or screenshots related to the case.
4. Any personal information about the offenders.
5. All your documents, contracts and more.
6. Details of cards or electronic wallets of attackers, their telephone numbers.

Collect everything you have and present this information to all authorities to which you will turn for help. Their presence can help speed up the search for scammers.

What to do before selling a car

Before putting your car up for sale, get its technical condition in order, pay fines and remove any bans, if any. By presenting a clean report to an honest buyer, you can sell the car profitably. In case of minor problems, for example, a slight increase in mileage due to the fault of the service station employees who carried out the technical inspection, or minor accidents, a discount can be given.

Special online data aggregators, for example, avtocod.ru, help to find out the history of a car. Autocode reports display the problems that the car has at the time of inspection: unpaid fines, accidents, bail, calculations for repair work, traffic police restrictions, the presence of enforcement proceedings, etc.

For example, the 8th generation Honda Accord is for sale. According to the seller, there are no accidents, the mileage is original.

We check the car through avtocod.ru and see that there really were no accidents.

But enforcement proceedings have been initiated against the owner due to debts. For the buyer, this is fraught with restrictions on registry actions, for the seller – refusal of the transaction. Before posting an ad, it is better to contact the FSSP, find out information about debts and pay everything.

Enforcement proceedings were most likely initiated due to non-payment of fines. They have been “hanging” since March 2021.

The seller lied about the mileage. The data has decreased under the current owner during the 2021 MOT. The last mileage was displayed from the ad history.

The data from the description and the report do not match - there will be no trust in the seller. An honest buyer, after checking, will most likely refuse to interact with the car owner.

Also read: Unobtrusively but convincingly: how to photograph a car for sale