Ukrainian scam call center defrauds US citizens of $500,000 — police

MOSCOW, July 2. /TASS/. Kiev cyber police have uncovered a scam call center that defrauded US citizens of 500,000 dollars, the National Police reported.

"Under the procedural guidance of the Prosecutor General’s Office, Kiev cyber police have uncovered a scam call center whose operators defrauded US citizens of more than 500,000 dollars," the police said in a statement on their Telegram channel.

According to the report, the scammers posed as financial advisors and convinced victims to invest in cryptocurrency, securities, and stocks through fake investment platforms, crypto exchanges, and other online resources under their control. "To communicate with US citizens, the organizers recruited foreigners fluent in English, specifically people from West Africa, the Americas, and the EU. After receiving the funds, the suspects transferred them through cryptocurrency wallets under their control and cut off all contact with the victims," the police added. According to their information, 20 US citizens have been identified as victims so far.

This is far from the first such incident. Ukraine is one of the hubs for scam call centers.

Earlier, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Dmitry Lyubinsky reported that there are about 1,500 telephone scam call centers are operating in Ukraine "under the tight control of the Kiev authorities." A single call center engaged in the "blatant robbery" of ordinary Russians generates an average of one million dollars per day. The senior Russian diplomat noted that the number of incidents involving these centers targeting Russian citizens has tripled compared to the 2021-2023 period. The main hubs where these call centers are located are Dnepropetrovsk, which hosts about 500 such organizations, as well as Kiev, Odessa, Lvov, Kharkov, and Ivano-Frankovsk. The number of Ukrainian citizens involved in these operations is estimated at approximately 100,000. Recently, citizens of Eastern and Western European countries have increasingly become targets of these scam call centers.