Two youths aged 17 and 18 in Chelyabinsk Oblast face trial for defrauding pensioners, the Investigative Committee of Russia told Lenta.ru.
Investigators completed their criminal investigation into the two local residents, who are charged with fraud. The 18-year-old suspect is also charged with involving a minor in a crime, and their case has been sent to court.
The agency warned that seeking easy earnings in messaging applications constitutes complicity in a crime.
Telegram Scam Operation
According to investigators, the 18-year-old began communicating on Telegram in May 2026 with handlers who offered participation in stealing money from senior citizens. He then recruited his 17-year-old acquaintance.
The handlers called elderly women and told them their relatives had caused traffic accidents. To resolve the issue, one 80-year-old pensioner was told to hand over 400,000 rubles, while another pensioner was instructed to give 146,000 rubles for the treatment of her daughter, who was allegedly injured in a crash.
The young men went to the specified addresses, collected the cash, and transferred the funds to the handlers while keeping a commission of 5 to 7 percent for themselves.
In a separate incident reported earlier, a fraud courier who took nearly 2.6 million rubles from a pensioner was detained in Saint Petersburg.
