According to 47.ru, a man called a St. Petersburg resident, introduced himself as an employee of Rosfinmonitoring, and spoke about the need to "protect and declare" her savings. For further conversation, he asked her to install the Max messenger.
After that, an unknown person called the pensioner back, introducing himself as an FSB employee. He persuaded the woman to hand over her savings to couriers. First, the St. Petersburg resident met with a messenger and gave him 1.1 million rubles, and a couple of days later, she handed over another 1.4 million rubles.
The police have initiated a criminal case on fraud.
Since August 10, Russia has started blocking the ability to make calls through Telegram and WhatsApp. "According to law enforcement agencies and numerous citizen complaints, foreign messengers Telegram and WhatsApp have become the main voice services used for fraud and extortion, as well as involving Russian citizens in sabotage and terrorist activities," stated Roskomnadzor. Subsequently, the authorities began to actively promote the use of the domestic "safe alternative" — Max.
The new national messenger Max not only collects certain data (such as IP address and user activity information) but also reserves the right to transfer them to third parties and government agencies, as stated in the service's privacy policy.