Penza, 3 April 2021. PenzaNews. A resident of the village of Malaya Serdoba, Penza region, lost money after being tricked by scammers into claiming she was owed money.

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The press service of the regional department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia told PenzaNews that the woman had received a message from her friend's profile on the Odnoklassniki social network that payments in the amount of 15 000 roubles were being made in connection with the pandemic.

“In order to get the money, she was required to give bank card details and the codes received in an SMS, which she did. The woman was then notified by the bank that 13 200 roubles had been debited from her bank accounts. After a while, she called the acquaintance who told her that her page had been hacked,” the agency explained.

The press service said that an investigation into the fraud had been launched.