In Yekaterinburg, a "college director" swindled nearly one million rubles from a 20-year-old woman.

      In Yekaterinburg a 20-year-old woman "saved" nearly 900,000 rubles of her parents' money by handing it to a courier-fraudster. The criminals contacted her posing as the director of the college she had previously attended, the media relations department of the Russian Interior Ministry's Yekaterinburg division reports.

      The unemployed local resident, born in 2005, went to the police at the beginning of August. The complainant said that unknown individuals deceived her into handing over 600,000 rubles and 3,000 euros. The woman said she received a message in a messenger from someone claiming to be the head of the college she had recently graduated from.

      The fake director said that an inspection was being carried out at the educational institution and that a security officer would contact the alumna. Then a "security officer" called the woman, claiming that some fraudsters had obtained students' personal data, including that of former students.

      He advised her to declare all her cash for safety reasons. To do this, she just needed to hand it over to a courier who would give a password — "position."

      As a result, the victim collected her parents' money from the house and put it in a bag. Soon a courier arrived, who said the agreed-upon password, and the complainant, relieved, handed him all the cash.

      A little later, another call came from the "security service." The caller demanded that she find and transfer more money. Only at that point did the victim realize she was speaking with a fraudster.

      In September, criminal investigators managed to identify and detain the "runner" who took the money from the woman. He turned out to be a 25-year-old local resident, unemployed, with no previous convictions. He told law enforcement the standard story about being recruited through social networks to transport money and send it to crypto wallets.

      A criminal case has been opened against the detainee under Part 3 of Article 159 of the Russian Criminal Code (fraud). Police are now investigating how many other such assignments he carried out.