[Mikhail_Edoshin]

It's a growing threat everywhere. Here in Russia it's nearly always in the news. They can even trick a person into selling expensive property (real estate) and then steal the money.

One thing is the government must act. These calls are mostly done from abroad. Phone companies can implement some protective measures. Banks too need to watch for common patterns (doesn't always help because scammers talk the victim around the checks). The society as a whole needs to get aware. What a single person could do is to keep contact with the relatives. I've read an expert report on one such case; the author wrote that even a single close someone could break the trance and stop the scam. In that case the victim happened to be a popular singer seemingly never alone, yet as it turned out she actually was a lone old lady with not a single confidant close enough for more than a month.

She was, of course, shattered with what happened (she lost close to $3M), but after some time in one if her interviews she said: "I will survive". She said it in Russian and did not comment on the phrase further, it must be too personal. Yet of course she meant that song. The song helps her. The song's story is different, but the emotion is same. We have all our love to give. A hard hit will do good if it makes us to commit on that.

[silisili]

One thing both Robinhood and Revolut offer, which I wish was mandatory, is that they detect when on a phone call and their banking apps put a banner on the top warning they are not calling the user and to not give out any information.

A small gesture, but anything that can help I'm all for.

[scapbi]

My main background is in mathematics, and after 15 years working in big data, I am now focusing on machine learning and AI. Not flashy technologies, but practical ones that can do things beyond what a normal human can do alone.

As for the human side, I have already shared my story within a closed community where other engineers know me personally. I am not begging for help; my goal is to inform more people about this situation and, if I am fortunate, to find others who are willing to join me in this fight.

[romanhn]

Then the singer went on to use her influence and celebrity lawyers to keep the apartment and not return the buyer's money, screwing the buyer in the process. Literally her defenses were "the buyer should've known this deal was suspect due to below the market price" and that the buyer should have asked for a health report from a psychiatrist (wtf). Not a nice old lady after all. I haven't been following the case closely, but it seems like the decision has been overturned.

Similar to Streisand Effect, there's now in Russia the term Dolina Effect [0] after this singer, referring to these "grandma schemes" where criminals direct the elderly to sell their property and then renege, relying on courts siding with them to keep the property and the money. Whatever the real story is, it's all so messed up.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolina_effect

[Mikhail_Edoshin]

That "use of influence" is pure imagination. But you are right, there is another even darker half of the story: not only she has lost a large sum of money, she is now hated and bullied by a raging mob of "honest buyers".

(Most such sales happen at a large discount; half price is not uncommon. In many cases the buyer can clearly see something is off. Yet the price is so sweet the buyer cannot resist and risks getting sued afterwards. Of course, maybe this particular case is an exception.)

[romanhn]

I must have imagined that she was represented by Mikhail Barshchevsky, one of the highest-ranked government lawyers. Just to be clear, your stance is that the buyer should be the bagholder when the seller gets swindled?

[scapbi]

Your last story is deeply moving. It captures the human cost behind these crimes in a way that statistics never can. Her quiet strength, expressed in just a few words, is a powerful reminder that even after devastating loss, people can find the will to endure and move forward.

[TiredOfLife]

> Here in Russia it's nearly always in the news

And that is bad because...?

[Bridged7756]

The guy is one of Putin's top generals, also known as "Bloodhound" (in Russian), anyways, he sounds pretty bloodthirsty too, just from the way he writes. You have to pay for your crimes you monster! You and all your people deserve to die! Every Russian. It's just so monstrous how they decide to just invade another country because they can right? What gives them the right? All their people should pay for it, with blood.

[hmmmhmmhm]

you do realize not ALL Russians side with their govt, right?

Just like not all Ukrainians were slaughtering Polish people in most barbarian ways, icluding newborns and pregnant woman in Wołyń