In Yekaterinburg, a student with a stolen safe was detained while working for internet scammers.

      Fraudsters tricked a resident of Yekaterinburg into handing over the keys to his apartment, after which a safe was stolen from the residence. Following hot leads, officers from the criminal investigation department of police station No. 5 detained a suspect—a 21-year-old student from one of the city's universities.

      According to the police, the apartment owner contacted law enforcement. He stated that unknown individuals contacted his son and convinced the young man to hand over the keys to the apartment.

      Preliminary data indicates that a woman, who introduced herself as an employee of an intercom company, first called the young man. She asked him to dictate a code from an SMS supposedly for equipment repair. Then another unknown person contacted him, claiming that his account on the government services portal had been hacked and informed him that a power of attorney had allegedly been issued in the young man's name for transferring money abroad.

      The criminals convinced the interlocutor that in order to cancel the power of attorney, he needed to assist the "investigation" and provide access to the apartment for a search. Following the fraudsters' instructions, the young man handed over the keys to a stranger.

      The family only learned about the missing safe in the evening when they returned home. After that, the son told his father about all the circumstances of the incident.

      Operatives quickly established the route of the alleged perpetrator and detained him in Berezovsky on the same day. It turned out that the young man himself had previously fallen victim to fraudsters. In December of last year, he transferred 145,000 rubles to the scammers, after which the criminals continued to maintain contact with him.

      According to the investigation, a few months later, the fraudsters contacted the student again and instructed him to act as a courier. For this purpose, they rented a garage in Berezovsky, ordered a taxi to Yekaterinburg, and told him to take a large suitcase for transporting the safe.

      After opening the stolen safe, only a small amount of foreign currency and a ring were found inside. Following the instructions of his handlers, the detained individual took the contents and was supposed to wait for further instructions, but was soon detained by the police.

      A criminal case has been initiated against the young man under the article "Theft with illegal entry into a dwelling." Police are currently checking his possible involvement in other episodes of fraudulent schemes.