Theft from Others' Bank Cards Through the ‘Odnoklassniki’ Website

The Investigative Committee of Armenia has revealed the circumstances surrounding thefts from the bank cards of 23 individuals, thanks to extensive investigative and procedural actions carried out during the pre-investigation of a multi-episode criminal case related to human trafficking and illegal drug trafficking.

According to the Investigative Committee, two residents of Kapan city created individual pages on the 'ok.ru' website, mimicking the real pages of different users by downloading their photos and information. Subsequently, using the fraudulent pages resembling 'ok.ru', the Kapan residents communicated with individuals included in the friends list of the real users, pretending to be those real users. They tricked these individuals into providing their bank card details—such as the validity period (including the CVV code)—under the pretense of transferring money to their card accounts, along with requesting passwords sent to phone numbers associated with their card accounts for confirming monetary transfers.

It has been established during the pre-investigation that one of the suspects had withdrawn and stolen a particularly large sum of money from the bank accounts of cardholders using the acquired card data via the internet, while the other had transferred a large sum to 'Idram' and 'Easy Pay' accounts previously registered and managed by themselves and another accomplice residing in Kapan, and made payments to the company 'menu.am'. Afterward, the stolen funds were transferred from the 'Idram' and 'Easy Pay' accounts to bank cards managed by them or belonging to their acquaintances and were subsequently cashed out.

Based on the accumulated sufficient evidence, one resident of Kapan has been charged under Article 181, Part 3, Clause 1 of the RA Criminal Code, while the other has been charged under Article 181, Parts 1 and 2, Clauses 1 and 2, as well as Article 38-181, Part 1. The third individual has been charged under Article 38-181, Part 2, Clauses 1 and 2. The pre-investigation has been completed, and the case has been sent to the Prosecutor General of Armenia with a request to forward it to the court with an accusatory conclusion.