A resident of the Mirabad district of Tashkent narrowly escaped becoming a victim of phone scammers who posed as telephone company employees, then connected her to a fake investigator and a 'Central Bank specialist'. Under pressure, the woman withdrew 370 million soums from her deposit account.

The incident occurred with a woman named Nadezhda. She received calls from various numbers: unknown individuals claimed to be telephone service employees and said her number needed to be changed. Later, they contacted her again posing as other specialists and began asking about her bank deposits.

The scammers then increased pressure, claiming that a large loan had been taken out in her name. Under the pretext of 'urgent protection of funds', they convinced her to withdraw money from her deposit, promising to guide her over the phone. Feeling frightened and psychologically pressured, she went to the bank and withdrew all the money.

'I left the bank with the money and felt that something was wrong,' the woman said. She approached nearby law enforcement officers, who immediately realized it was fraud. They took her to the police department and ensured the safety of her funds.

Officers explained that the scammers used a common phone fraud scenario: first gaining trust, then frightening the victim with bank account or loan problems, and then forcing them to urgently withdraw money.

The police emphasized that such schemes are based on pressure and intimidation. Bank and law enforcement employees never ask over the phone to transfer money to 'safe accounts'. In case of such calls, one should immediately end the conversation and seek help from relatives or law enforcement.

It is worth recalling that banking apps in Uzbekistan have switched to enhanced security mode. Now, money transfers are blocked if you are talking on the phone at the same time, and logging in from a new smartphone requires mandatory face scanning.

Source: podrobno.uz