Motive of the crime: according to what scheme did the scammers divorce Mikhail Turetsky's daughter

Mikhail Turetsky's daughter gave a large sum to fraudsters. 19-year-old Emmanuelle was led for several days — they concocted a power of attorney on her behalf for a citizen of Ukraine and began to intimidate her with criminal charges for sponsoring extremists and the collapse of her father's career. The girl was constantly kept in touch and eventually convinced to transfer a large sum to an ordinary courier, which she did in a panic. Only then did the Turkish realize that she was a victim of fraud and contacted the police. About how the scammers acted and what you need to know about their manipulation techniques in order not to get hooked — in the material of Izvestia.

"Professional intimidation in legal language"

Phone scammers played a complicated game with Mikhail Turetsky's daughter, 19—year-old Emmanuelle. First, she received a call from a delivery company and was persuaded to give her a text message code. The girl immediately realized that she had made a mistake, but did not suspect that this was just a small first move by scammers in a big play, in the finale of which she took a large sum of money out of the house.

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— There is such a level of training! As soon as I called the code, our phone conversation was interrupted by an answering machine, which informed me that fraud had most likely been committed and I needed to call the extension. Of course, I did it right away. A nice girl answered, who began to warn that there is a lot of fraud now, especially since I come from a media family — there may be more attention and you need to be careful. We talked for about an hour. And then she throws off a power of attorney for me, which says that I entrust all accounts to a certain extremist from Ukraine," Turk told Izvestia.

The scam artist on the other end of the line assured that only Rosfinmonitoring could solve the problem now, and connected Emmanuel via video to a certain Government line, also fake, but it sounded convincing. And then there's a serious, continuous conversation with the fake investigator.

— You are forced to make excuses for something you did not do, pressure begins, very long conversations begin.: "Do you know who I am? Do you know that this is a criminal offense? Do you understand the responsibility you can take? Your father is a confidant of the president — you understand that his career, your future..."— and you are already sitting in a daze, you don't understand anything, it becomes wildly scary," Turk recalls. — Even more pressure, even more pressure: "How can you explain your involvement?", screenshots of some crazy transfers for 4 million 350 thousand.

The scammers led their victim for several days. Telling anyone about what was happening was forbidden. They assured me that if we cooperate, there will be no problems, and they praised me for my good behavior.

— You are not allowed to talk to anyone, they are afraid of criminal liability and the fact that your family will also have problems. You can't Google anything because they tell you that your phone is being scanned, and any attempt to find out something is an escape from responsibility. By zoom 24/7. Even if you go to the bathroom, you can't turn off the sound — that much! This is Emmanuel speaking.

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The Turkish woman was told that the house would soon be searched, and any cash found by the security forces would be regarded as money received from extremists. The only way out is to declare all the savings. The service turned out to be top—notch - a courier from a regular delivery service came to collect the money.

— There was an ordinary courier, not in 100% collusion. Just ordinary people who had no idea where they were taking their money. They had to be packed. I put it in a box, some tinsel on top, perfume on top," she said.

How scammers act

It is by playing on the feeling of fear that criminals put the victim on the hook. A "point of entry" can be found to any person, human rights activists say, regardless of the type of activity and financial condition.

— The main thing is to make him believe by any means that he has committed a certain act, for which responsibility must certainly come, and a criminal one at that. In this way, they create fear in the victim — this is a mandatory feature of all forms of manipulation," explained Alexander Aronov, lawyer, Chairman of the Presidium of ICA Aronov and Partners, professor at the Higher School of Economics, in an interview with Izvestia.

These psycho-technologies, which were originally used for psychotherapy, deprive critical thinking and lead to a trance state, the expert says.

— When scammers call, they don't even let the victim stop for a minute to think. They have to control the time all the time. This is time control. The second is space control. It clarifies where the victim is, what she is doing. The person consults with them all the time. This is how self-awareness is encapsulated. And all the time they're pumping emotions from fear to joy to hope," Aronov said.

At the same time, experts note an increase in fraud against young people aged 18-19, who, although they are of age, are still children.

— The professional use of neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) techniques by fraudsters is particularly dangerous. Practice shows that even young people who have been repeatedly instructed by their parents about the methods of fraudsters fall for these tricks. Psychological pressure, artificially created haste and manipulation of the emotional state lead to the disabling of critical thinking even in trained individuals," partner, head of private client practice at Mitra Law Firm Alina Laktionova told Izvestia.

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What is the reason for this and what new ways of deception are being introduced by hackers?

It is almost impossible to bring the organizers of such crimes to justice.

— In the presented story, there is a potential opportunity to identify a courier through whom, theoretically, it is possible to contact the organizers. However, practice shows that couriers usually do not have direct communication with customers. Accounts of front persons ("droppers") are used for financial transactions, which are also often performed by young people aged 16-20 who are unaware of the full legal consequences of their actions," Alina Laktionova, partner and head of private client practice at Mitra Law Firm, told Izvestia.

Experts call informing the population the only way to combat the phenomenon. Emmanuel now urges the public not to shame those who find themselves in a similar situation. Her family took the incident calmly and supported her daughter. "I love you even more after that! You're so naive, so guileless! A poet's dream is to have such a girl," says Michali Turetsky in a video posted on her daughter's blog.