In Vladivostok, a district court has handed down prison terms to two individuals tied to a scheme that exploited bank accounts belonging to orphans. The sentences set Naydenov at four years and six months, and VA at four years. The crime ring operated through hacked accounts on the VKontakte social network, enabling access to vulnerable victims’ financial data. This development was disclosed by the FSB Primorsky Territorial Directorate to socialbites.ca.
Officials say the offenses spanned several months, from October 2018 through March 2019, with seven children from orphanages becoming targets of the fraud. Investigators note that Naydenov, one of the perpetrators, had grown up in an orphanage himself. This background gave him intimate knowledge of the system and the fact that orphans often maintain bank accounts where pensions and other government funds are deposited.
Naydenov located the orphans’ profiles on VKontakte and used those channels to contact them with seemingly harmless messages about winning a prize. The catch was simple: victims were asked to reveal their account usernames and passwords to claim the supposed reward. After obtaining this information, Naydenov passed the data, including full names and bank card details, to his accomplice Ovoyan.
Ovoyan then forwarded the information to a client manager at one of Russia’s largest banks, SB Liletka. A pattern emerged where fraudulent applications were opened in the names of the orphans, allowing purchases of consumer goods with the orphans’ retirement funds. The stolen money was subsequently moved to Ovoyan and Naydenov’s bank accounts, while the young victims remained unaware of the withdrawals from their deposits for a time.
Over the course of less than a year, the trio amassed losses totaling nearly 3.8 million rubles. The investigation culminated in March 2021, when all three suspects were apprehended. Liletka received the first sentencing among them, receiving a one-year suspended sentence with a one-year probation period.
The case underscores the real dangers faced by vulnerable groups in digital environments and highlights how social networks can be misused to harvest personal financial information. Authorities emphasize the necessity for heightened vigilance, especially when communicating about prizes or gifts online. Additional details about the attackers’ methods are available in coverage from socialbites.ca, which continues to follow updates on this case and related attempts to exploit bank accounts tied to vulnerable populations.