YEREVAN, APRIL 18, ARMENPRESS. As part of fighting cybercrimes, the National Security Service of Armenia eliminated a criminal syndicate comprising Armenian citizens who were engaged in bank account fraud, the National Security Service told ARMENPRESS.

The scammers were active in 2017-2018 and used social media to commit fraud. The syndicate targeted over two dozen citizens of Artsakh, created fake social media accounts under the names of their family members and tricked them into providing bank details under the pretext for sending remittances from abroad. The scammers later used the bank account information to cash out money.

Five scammers have been arrested.

An investigation is currently underway to identify and discover the remaining accomplices of the criminals, as well as the entire circle of victims.

In addition to the abovementioned case, the NSS also uncovered a transnational syndicate of bank scammers.

In particular, a group of Russian citizens committed bank fraud by getting hold of bank accounts of several Armenian citizens and causing 160,000 dollars in damages.

Two citizens of Armenia have been charged as accomplices.

In addition, another case was uncovered involving a group of 4 citizens of Spain, Lithuania and Georgia. The group illegally obtained bank information from US-based banks. The scammers later illegally transferred more than 32 million drams to their accounts and attempted to withdraw it from ATMs. But they were unable to cash out the money because Armenian banks assessed the transactions as suspicious and the accounts were frozen, and credit cards were blocked.

English –translator/editor: Stepan Kocharyan