Frauds and scams have been increasing across the globe and governments are taking steps to curb them. However, we often hear about scammers targeting victims to launder money. A similar case has come to light from Russia where scammers duped a man into transferring his savings of £17,000 (Rs 16.94 lakh) and tricked him into putting his bank on fire with a Molotov cocktail. The Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported that a 48-year-old Russian man from Ruza, a town in the Moscow region, was arrested a few days ago after allegedly being tricked into throwing a Molotov cocktail in a Sberbank bank branch.
The bank employees managed to extinguish the flames before the fire services arrived at the scene. Police were quick to identify the culprit and detain him. Once he was detained, the man, whose name was not disclosed due to privacy reasons, shared with police that he was contacted by someone a while ago and introduced themselves as a representative of Russia’s largest bank. The person then told the man that his account was linked to suspicious activity.
The alleged bank representative convinced the man that scammers were trying to steal his money and that the best way to keep them safe would be transferring the funds to secure accounts overseen by bank employees.
After the initial contact, the man agreed and transferred all his savings of around Rs 16.94 lakh into several accounts provided by the alleged Sberbank representative. The scammer didn’t stop there. After receiving the money, the fraudster went a step ahead and convinced the victim that the only way to expose the scammers trying to steal his money was to set the Sberbank branch on fire in Ruza.
The fraudster even gave instructions on how to build a Molotov cocktail. The man followed the steps and built a device and made sure there were no customers inside the bank’s branch at the time. The man then opened the door and threw the device inside.
The man couldn’t answer the investigators about how throwing the fire bomb into the bank would have revealed the scammer. According to RIA Novosti, the investigators thought his story to be fictitious and unbelievable, but upon inspection, it came out to be true. The news agency stated that the man will most likely be accused of property damage and potentially other crimes. Although, there are slim chances of recovering his life savings.
Read all the Latest Buzz News here