Scammers steal 139 thousand hryvnias raised by Zhytomyr journalist for a drone for her husband
Scammers stole 139,000 hryvnias collected by Zhytomyr journalist Tetyana Khmel for a drone for her husband in the army.
The media worker reported this on July 2 on Facebook and shared the details with the IMI representative in Zhytomyr oblast.
According to her, the scammers created a clone of the Monobank chatbot and communicated with her on behalf of a "bank employee" who knew about the latest donations to the monojar.
Back in May, shortly before her 30th birthday, Tetyana announced a fundraising campaign for a Mavic 3-T for her husband's Assault Brigade. Tetyana planned to order the drone in a few days, but on July 1, scammers stole the money from her account.
“Friends, the money that we worked so hard to raise for a Mavic 3-T for my husband's unit was stolen from my jar. I fell into the trap made by very professional scammers who had been basically preparing this for two months. Back in May, they created an exact replica of the Monobank chatbot that communicated with me about the status of my accounts, later informing me that my card had expired and advising me on what to do next. Later, I contacted this chatbot with other questions, and they helped me. Until yesterday, July 1, I received a text from that chatbot saying that my account would be blocked for excessive activity and arbitrary money transfers," wrote Tetyana Khmel.
In the comment to the IMI representative, the journalist said that while working in the news, she had filmed many stories about scammers who swindle money from people, and she knew she should not disclose her bank details.
She had no suspicions from the start because the "bank employee" was not asking any suspicious questions, but told her the transaction sums, the names of the people sending the money, and even the payment comments these people wrote. On that day, there many donations incoming, because Tetyana's friend, journalist Iryna Kyrylovych, asked her friends to join the drone fundraiser on her birthday.
Tetyana Khmel also said that the "bank employee" explained to her during a long phone conversation that due to such frequent transactions and the birthday greetings in the payment comments, the bank may suspend the fundraiser for verification and later send the money back to the people who sent the donations.
"He mentioned the names and surnames of some people I know who had donated on that particular day. Moreover, he mentioned the exact sums donated. An outsider could not know such information, so I had no doubts," said Tetyana.
Following the scammer's advice, Tatiana withdrew money from the monojar to her card, from which all the funds soon disappeared. When the journalist realized that she had been deceived, she immediately contacted the Zhytomyr oblast police, the Cyber Police, and Monobank, asking them to help investigate this case.
The Zhytomyr oblast police have already started a probe into the fraud.
"According to the woman's statement, the police department No. 1 of the Zhytomyr district office have opened proceedings. The event has been preliminarily filed under Art. 190 (Fraud) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The pre-trial investigation is underywa," Maryna Vitvitska, senior communications inspector of the Zhytomyr District Police Office, told Zhytomyr.info.
Since 2022 Tetyana Khmel has organized 5 successful fundraising campaigns for her husband's unit, which has defending Ukraine since 2015. Now Tetyana's husband is fighyinh in the Lyman region.
The journalist noted that she had 60,000 hryvnias left, which were not stored on the Monobank card. She will report on the crowdfunding campaign when she gets an update from the police and the bank's security service.
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