38-Year-Old Man from Artashat Steals 2,500,000 Drams from Three Citizens through Fraud

The Investigative Committee of the Republic of Armenia has reported that investigations within the Cybercrime and High-Tech Crimes Unit have revealed that a 38-year-old man, in pursuit of obtaining financial resources through illicit means, contacted three different citizens via various phone numbers in December 2021 and January and February 2022. Posing as an employee of the company 'Idram', he pretended to conduct checks and requested the app's passwords from them.

After acquiring these passwords, he accessed the 'Idram' wallets identified under the names of these citizens by entering the obtained data. Subsequently, without any legal basis or permission, he entered these wallets and facilitated the online processing of multiple loan agreements through one of the banks operating in the Republic of Armenia, with amounts ranging from 100,000 to 300,000 drams.

Afterwards, from the total of 800,000 drams credited to the 'Idram' wallet as loan funds, 600,000 drams were transferred to gaming accounts registered under his acquaintances’ names but actually used by him, constituting a large-scale computer fraud. In one incident, besides the theft of the loan funds acquired through the aforementioned fraudulent scheme, the 38-year-old man also withdrew a total of 1,900,000 drams from the bank card linked to the victim’s 'Idram' wallet.

Based on sufficient evidence, the 38-year-old man has been charged under the 2nd part of the 257th article of the RA Criminal Code. The preliminary investigation has been completed, and the materials of the criminal case with an accusatory conclusion have been forwarded to the supervising prosecutor for approval and submission to the court.

The Investigative Committee urges citizens to avoid becoming victims of cybercrime by never providing banking app or electronic wallet login credentials, especially passwords, to unknown persons, regardless of their claims. In cases where unknown individuals present themselves as representatives of banks or financial organizations asking for similar information, it is essential to conduct additional checks by communicating with those organizations and to report to law enforcement agencies.