In Yekaterinburg, a 20-year-old cashier transferred the cash from the register to scammers while "saving" the store's money.

      A twenty-year-old resident of Uralmash, working as a cashier in one of Yekaterinburg’s chain stores, became a victim of telephone fraudsters. According to reports, at their instruction she took a large sum of cash from the register and left her workplace in the middle of the day.

      Colleagues and relatives reported the girl’s sudden disappearance to the police. However, the next day she turned up and said she had spent the night in a hostel.

      According to the cashier, on November 18 she received a call from an unknown number from a woman who presented herself as an employee of a mobile phone company. The caller asked the girl to confirm her identity for a “subscription renewal” — to read out the codes sent to her phone via SMS.

      The girl was tired after her shift and, without much thought, gave the numbers requested.

      “Soon her phone was flooded with calls and messages supposedly from representatives of the MFC, the FSB and the Central Bank. The fake representatives of state agencies convinced the victim that she had disclosed some important information and that the funds in the store’s cash register were now under threat. The perpetrators ordered her to immediately ‘seize’ them and leave the store,” the press office of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs in Yekaterinburg said.

      For the rest of the day the victim was driven around the city by taxi from one bank to another as they tried to take out loans in her name. Only her damaged credit history saved her.

      “When the mobile internet went down, the fraudsters sent their ‘charge’ to a hostel, forbidding her, under threat of ‘criminal liability’, to communicate with any acquaintances.

      In the morning the scammers forced the victim to transfer 260,000 rubles taken from the till to accounts specified by them.

      Closer to the evening they sent her home to check her relatives’ accounts. However, by that time the girl had already read messages on social media that people were looking for her and understood everything. She contacted her friends and then went to Police Department No. 14 herself,” the MVD reported.

      The woman still has correspondence with the scammers. She said she is willing to compensate the store for the damage caused by her actions. Investigators from the local police department are currently continuing an inquiry into the incident, during which a legal assessment of the woman’s actions will be made.

      The police once again remind citizens that scammers constantly change the methods they use to deceive people. Nevertheless, despite their sophistication, fraudsters can be countered by following the simplest rules:

      1. Do not talk to strangers on the phone;

      2. Do not disclose any personal data or codes to outsiders;

      3. Do not transfer or hand money over to unknown people;

      4. Verify all information you receive by phone personally.