"Siloviki" conned a mother and daughter from Nizhny Novgorod out of 85 million rubles.

      19 November 2025, 10:20 — Incidents

      In Nizhny Novgorod, a mother and daughter fell victim to a large-scale scam. Fraudsters deceived them into parting with cash and valuables worth nearly 85 million rubles, the press service of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the region reported.

      According to the victims, for several days they received calls from unknown individuals who presented themselves as employees of various government and security agencies. The scammers accused the women of allegedly being involved in financing a hostile country and threatened them with searches.

      Under the pressure of these threats, the fraudsters persuaded the Nizhny Novgorod women to hand over all their valuables to certain couriers, allegedly for subsequent declaration. To confirm the legitimacy of their actions, the criminals used a code word.

      The women met with the couriers four times in the square on Alekseevskaya Street. During these meetings they handed over 300 investment gold coins (worth approximately 24 million rubles), gold bars weighing about 2.45 kg, cash amounting to 24.23 million rubles and $40,000.

      In addition, the victims twice transferred large sums to unknown accounts — 6.6 and 1.1 million rubles, respectively.

      The total damage caused by the fraudsters amounted to 84,970,000 rubles.

      The police have opened a criminal case under the article on fraud on an especially large scale. Police officers are currently identifying those involved in the crime.

      Earlier it was reported that over the course of a week Nizhny Novgorod residents gave scammers 158 million rubles.

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