Scammers forced a 9-year-old boy to hand over a family safe containing money and a 17-year-old teenager to collect it, the Interior Ministry press service reported. A criminal case has been opened.
According to the ministry, a resident of Minsk contacted police, saying her son had fallen victim to telephone fraudsters.
“The child received a call via a messenger from a fake law enforcement officer who threatened to send his mother to prison. To avoid this, he was told to take all the savings from home and hand them over to a courier. The schoolboy became frightened and gave the family safe containing six thousand dollars to an unknown person, whom he let into the apartment,” the statement said.
The courier turned out to be a 17-year-old student of a Minsk college, who had also been acting under pressure from the scammers.
“At first, he was offered to replace an intercom system and was tricked into providing his passport details, after which he was threatened with his mother’s imprisonment. To avoid this, the teenager agreed to carry out the scammers’ instructions. He then cut open the safe and hid the cash in a stash,” the Interior Ministry added.
As part of the criminal investigation, other participants in the scheme are being identified.
