Three unemployed: Suspects of extortion from the wife of a Russian prisoner of war detained in the Sverdlovsk region

Police officers detained three local residents in Nizhny Tagil on suspicion of extorting money from the wife of a Russian soldier who was captured during a special military operation in Ukraine.

This was reported by the TASS agency with reference to a source in law enforcement agencies.

“A group from Nizhny Tagil was detained for extortion.

A criminal case was initiated in Dzerzhinsk, Nizhny Novgorod region.

To detain three people, several employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for Nizhny Tagil were involved, ”said the agency’s interlocutor.

According to the REN TV channel, those detained between 22 and 28 years old are all unemployed and had no previous convictions.

After the arrest, which took place on April 4, searches were carried out at their places of residence, and the court chose a measure of restraint in the form of detention.

According to part 3 of Art.

163 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Extortion”), the trinity faces imprisonment for a term of seven to 15 years and a large fine.

According to media reports, on March 8, an unknown person contacted the woman on one of the social networks, who sent her a video recording of the interrogation of her husband who was captured, made by the Ukrainian security forces, found in the public domain.

The woman turned to the military unit of her husband, where she was confirmed the information about his capture.

Meanwhile, an unknown person declared that he was her husband's "guardian angel", and began to demand 10 million rubles in order to save his life.

As a result, the amount dropped to 400 thousand rubles, which had to be urgently transferred to a certain Igor Mineev.

After her refusal to pay, the attackers threatened the woman with an immediate reprisal against her husband and even sent her photographs of someone's limbs.

At the same time, the “guardian angel” did not let the woman make sure that everything was in order with her husband and talk to him.

The desperate woman asked for help from her acquaintances, who guessed to contact the authorities, after which the attackers were identified and detained.

According to some reports, one of them was 22-year-old Igor Mineev.

Taking advantage of the situation

This is not the first time that attackers are trying to deceive the relatives of servicemen participating in a special military operation.

In early March, in the Novosibirsk region, scammers on behalf of the Committee of Soldiers' Mothers began to call the parents of the military and offer them to transfer money in order to rescue their children from captivity and deliver them home.

“There are a lot of calls from parents to confirm whether this is true or not.

I officially declare: we do not conduct any such fees.

I want to warn local residents not to give in to persuasion, not to give their bank card numbers and so on.

These are telephone scammers, ”Olga Golovina, chairman of the Committee of Soldiers’ Mothers of the Novosibirsk Region, told Vesti then.

Also in early March, the media reported that scammers on the Internet were actively spreading rumors that they had information about Russian servicemen who allegedly died or were captured during the hostilities.

At the same time, when the Russians tried to get more detailed information on the proposed Ukrainian phone numbers, all the money was debited from their mobile account.

Phone scammers are trying to cash in on a related news agenda.

So, in the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia they talked about a scheme to convince gullible citizens that due to the departure of payment systems from the country or the alleged upcoming blocking of all banking operations, it is urgent to open an account in a foreign bank.

To do this, attackers are trying to get the card number from citizens and convince them to follow further instructions.

Often, scammers try to create an artificial hype around drugs in pharmacies or offer their services for paperwork to leave Russia.

Specialists in the field of information security warned about such scams almost immediately after the start of a special military operation.

They advise not to conduct such conversations on the phone and call back to the relevant institutions themselves.

Another scheme of deception, as noted by Group-IB, is associated with the appearance on social networks of numerous fake ads and mailings with a call to raise money for the victims of hostilities.

Similarly, money is "collected" for the needs of the Russian army.

Experts also noted attempts to infect users' devices with malware.

“For example, fake mailings allegedly on behalf of the FSB of the Russian Federation were recorded with a proposal to download a special program to a computer - a protocol for protecting against DDoS attacks.

In addition to mailing lists, the attackers offered to download a similar “protective” program from a recently created fake site with FSB symbols,” Evgeny Egorov, a leading analyst at the Digital Risk Protection Group-IB Department, told RIA Novosti.