Odesa Scammers Extort ₴400K from Family of Missing Serviceman

Fraudsters from Odesa region have developed a scheme to extort money from relatives of military personnel who were reported missing. Thus, the scammers cheated a resident of Chornomorsk out of 400 thousand hryvnias.

This was reported by the Odesa Regional Prosecutor's Office.

The investigation found that, having learned about the disappearance of a serviceman during the hostilities in Donetsk region, the suspects developed a scheme to seize the defender's documents and his mother's money. Starting in August 2024, they used a fake phone number and an assumed name to start corresponding with the woman, pretending to be her son, who was allegedly safe and in need of help.

Believing that she was talking to her son, the woman handed over a package with documents and money to one of the suspects, including a passport, military ID, combatant ID, driver's license, medical documents and almost UAH 175 thousand. Later, the suspects got in touch again and convinced the woman to make two more money transfers of UAH 120 thousand each. The total amount of damage caused is over UAH 400 thousand.

Photo: Odesa Regional Prosecutor's Office.

Investigators served three residents of Odesa region suspicion notices of fraud and misappropriation of official documents by deception (Art. 190, parts 2, 3, Art. 28, part 3, Art. 357 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

Earlier, law enforcement officers served a notice of suspicion of fraud and forgery to the deputy chief of staff of a military unit in Odesa region.

The State Bureau of Investigation, in cooperation with the Security Service of Ukraine, also completed a pre-trial investigation against the former commander of the Regional Directorate of the Territorial Defense Forces "South", who forced his subordinates to build him a private house.

Ірина Глухова