“Relative in Need”: How not to become a victim of one of the most common fraudulent schemes

Phone call in the middle of the night. On the other end of the wire is an excited voice reporting trouble with your loved one. Fear, panic, the desire to help – all this plays into the hands of fraudsters who skillfully use human emotions to cheat money. The “relative in need” scheme is one of the most common and at the same time the most effective fraud tactics.

Why do people fall into the trap? How to recognize fraudsters and protect your funds? Lawyers of the “Repeshko and Partners” Bar Association explained how to act in critical situations and not to be deceived. They also commented on the current legislation, which provides for criminal liability for this type of crime.

Everything new is well-forgotten old. Military actions on the territory of Ukraine somehow made ordinary citizens forget that the fraudsters have not gone anywhere and continue their criminal activities. As it turned out, the old fraudulent scheme, which is not many years old – “relative in trouble” – is still very relevant.

So, in the fall of 2023, an 86-year-old resident of the city of Ivano-Frankivsk contacted the police, who reported that an unknown woman had called her and said that her daughter had been in a traffic accident and urgently needed to send money to the hospital for treatment. Without checking this information, the pensioner gave 22 thousand hryvnias and 200 US dollars to an unknown man who soon came to her. Realizing that she had come across fraudsters, the woman called the police. Thanks to this, the police officers, during the operational search, established that the man who came for the money was a 21-year-old resident of the Lviv region, who was detained in Ternopil a few hours later. The fraudster was recently released from prison and had previous convictions for robbery and theft.

A similar case happened almost at the same time in Zhytomyr Oblast. The man believed the scammers and gave 187,000 hryvnias to an unknown person. According to the pensioner, he received a call from a man who identified himself as a prosecutor and informed him that his daughter, who currently lives in the territory of the Russian Federation, was imprisoned, and funds were needed for her release. The next day, the pensioner got a call from a woman who pretended to be his daughter, believing her, the father transferred money through an ATM. He gave all his savings.

On October 14, 2024, the Dzerzhinsky District Court of Kharkiv passed the sentence, sentencing the fraudster to 3.6 years of imprisonment. According to the circumstances of the case, on May 4, 2023, the convict’s accomplice called the pensioner and told her that her granddaughter had been in a traffic accident, as a result of which she had injured both legs and was in the hospital’s trauma department and needed urgent knee surgery joints in the research and treatment center of microsurgery. The victim gave the criminals 60,000 hryvnias and her granddaughter’s belongings, the criminal repented at the court…

The other day, a resident of the Dnipropetrovsk region was convicted in Khmelnytskyi region, who, according to the same scheme, extorted 15 thousand US dollars from a pensioner. Posing as a doctor at the Khmelnytskyi Regional Hospital, the fraudster told the woman that her niece allegedly had an accident and needed urgent, expensive medical care, for which she needed to transfer 15,000 US dollars as soon as possible and that a trusted person would come to collect the money. Without checking the information and calling her niece, the woman handed over the funds to the accused, who came to her home.  Suspecting that something was wrong, the woman turned to the police. The fraudster was arrested. It turned out that the man had already been convicted of criminal offenses thirteen times.

There are more sophisticated variations of this scheme. So, a Ternopil resident was called by an unknown woman who introduced herself as a law enforcement officer. She reported that the woman’s minor granddaughter pushed the girl, as a result of which the latter broke her arm and damaged an expensive phone. The swindler assured the woman that in order for her granddaughter to avoid responsibility for what she had done, she needed to pay money as compensation. The victim agreed and transferred 50,000 hryvnias to an unknown account at the tips of the fraudster.

As we can see, the scheme is always standard – a loved one went to the hospital, in a road accident, to the police, and the scarier the fraudster’s story about the crime and the more terrible the consequences – the greater the impact on the potential victim. Here is the commission of a crime by a decent citizen, and the legs of which a young woman can get rid of, and an injured child, etc.

Most often, the victims of fraudsters are pensioners or people who are not well-informed. As can be seen from the given real examples, these stories do not include IT experts, doctors or heads of economic departments of enterprises. This is not accidental, fraudsters do not choose their victims at random. They carefully select her and try to learn as much as possible about her. In the story about a pensioner from Zhytomyr Oblast, the fraudsters knew that he:

• has a daughter (not a son);
• the daughter lives on the territory of the Russian Federation (that is, communication with her is difficult);
• due to the complicated connection and verification of the circumstances, the victim is most likely to “peck” at a fictional story.

We even know of cases when the fraudsters knew for sure that at this time the victim would not be able to contact a relative to verify the “terrible” story he had heard (the son was sleeping after the night shift, the daughter was in the pool, etc.).

In addition, fraudsters try to call at the most unexpected time, when a person cannot quickly and adequately respond to critical circumstances. Yes, most scam calls occur late in the evening, at night, or very early in the morning. At this time, even the brain is either already tired and refuses to think critically or has not yet woken up.

But what should you do when you receive a call from the “relative in trouble” scheme? First of all, do not panic, although this is the first and understandable reaction to the received information. There is no 100% guarantee that everything you were told is true, that the person on the other end of the phone is really who they say they are – a doctor, prosecutor, investigator, etc., and therefore:

• don’t let your emotions get the better of you, usually scammers are pretty good psychologists, because that’s how they make money;
• do not panic and do not rush to fulfill the conditions of scammers;
• to find out if you can be told the truth, ask the person who calls to give the name of your relative, the woman’s maiden name if she is married, the city in which he lives, describe his appearance and answer questions of a personal nature (where he works, how many children, what special signs, etc.);
• call the relative “in trouble” as soon as possible, or people who may be nearby, and confirm or deny what happened. If you can’t get in touch right away, don’t panic. Sometimes fraudsters know exactly the time when it is not possible to quickly verify what they said, so try to contact a loved one in the future;
• do not hand over money to anyone. If you still believe even a little, try to find out the address of the investigative station, hospital, etc. Go there in person and ask the person on duty (not the person who will leave the door, because it could be a fraudster who entered there 10 minutes ago) about your relative;
• without delay, call 102. An operative message will allow you to react quickly and arrest thieves on their hot tracks and prevent their criminal activities in the future.

It should be noted right away that everything fraudsters do is a criminal offense. The Criminal Code of Ukraine contains article 190 – “fraud”, which provides:

1. Taking possession of someone else’s property or acquiring the right to property by deception or abuse of trust (fraud) – is punishable by a fine of two thousand to three thousand non-taxable minimum incomes of citizens or community service for a period of two hundred to two hundred and forty hours, or corrective work for a period of up to two years, or probation supervision for a term of up to three years, or restriction of freedom for the same term.
2. Fraud committed repeatedly, or with a prior conspiracy by a group of persons, or such fraud, which caused significant damage to the victim, is punishable by a fine of three thousand to four thousand non-taxable minimum incomes of citizens or correctional labor for a period of one to two years, or restriction of freedom for a period up to five years, or imprisonment for up to three years.
3. Fraud committed during a state of war or state of emergency, which caused significant damage to the victim, is punishable by a fine of four thousand to eight thousand non-taxable minimum incomes of citizens or imprisonment for a term of three to five years.
4. Fraud committed on a large scale, or through illegal operations using electronic computing equipment, is punishable by imprisonment for a term of three to eight years.
5. Fraud committed on a particularly large scale or by an organized group is punishable by imprisonment for a term of five to twelve years with confiscation of property.

In accordance with this article, significant damage is recognized taking into account the financial situation of the victim and if he suffered losses in the amount of one hundred to two hundred and fifty tax-free minimum incomes of citizens. A criminal offense committed by one person or a group of persons for an amount that is two hundred and fifty times or more than the tax-free minimum income of citizens at the time of the commission of the criminal offense is recognized as a large amount. At the same time, a criminal offense committed by one person or a group of persons for an amount that exceeds six hundred or more times the non-taxable minimum income of citizens at the time of the commission of the criminal offense is recognized in particularly large amounts.

For qualification here, the tax-free minimum is used, which is UAH 1,514 However, unfortunately, fraudsters do not only operate according to the “relative in need” scheme. There are several options that criminals use.

“Monetary reform”. In this scheme, fraudsters come directly to the victim’s place of residence, posing as employees of social services, banks, pension funds, etc., and say that in connection with the implementation of monetary reform, it is necessary to replace old bills with new ones, know: these are 100% fraudsters. In this way, they try to appropriate all your savings. So, never let people who offer this into your home, contact your relatives and tell them what happened, be sure to call the police and tell them everything that happened, describing the appearance of the scammers as much as possible.

“Social payments during the war”. The martial law gave the fraudsters another idea for making money. “During the war, you can receive social assistance” – most often, fraudsters send such SMS messages about receiving various payments from authorities or charitable funds and ask for the following information: your profile data, card number, pin code, code word, three-digit number on the back of the card and its validity period. Sometimes it’s not an SMS, but a call from a person posing as a social worker or a representative of a well-known charitable foundation.

We would like to emphasize: to receive any assistance, if it really exists, only the card number is enough. Social services and charities never ask for anything more. All other information will allow fraudsters to easily and instantly withdraw all funds from your account. In this case, quickly end the conversation and hang up. If you have activated the “Voice Cast” service, then a few phrases recorded in your voice will be enough for fraudsters. In addition, check with the charitable foundation or representatives of government agencies – whether the help that was promised to you during the telephone conversation is actually available.

Calls on behalf of “bank representatives”. “Your card is blocked”, “they want to deduct money from your account”, “new rules during martial law” – fraudsters posing as bank employees use various methods to gain access to your bank cards. Remember – the bank never, even in wartime, asks for a pin code, a code word, a three-digit number on the back of the card and its validity period, or asks to enter a password that came to the CMC. Just hang up and call the police.

Finally, we advise you to support the principle “happiness loves silence”! If you received an inheritance, are going to buy a car or real estate, borrowed a lot of money from someone, saved up “for old age” – never tell anyone about it, except for close family members, who are already aware of what is happening. Fraudsters do not sleep! Remember: your awareness is the best defense against manipulation!