KHARKIV, Ukraine—Ukrainians are scamming Russians out of their life savings in an underground operation that steals money from Moscow’s citizens and donates it directly to Kyiv’s military.
In call centers throughout Ukraine, the operation, known as “the Office,” equips workers with a headset, computer program, and the phone numbers of Russians. The Office is known to be operated by Ukraine’s organized crime groups and is part of a global scam that exists in countries like India and the Philippines, as well as inside of Russia.
Until Feb. 24, 2022, in Ukraine, the Office focused its scam on targets in Western countries like the U.S. as well as various European Union-based companies. In the aftermath of Russia’s invasion, it shifted all of its work onto Russian civilians. The fraud begins with the victim receiving a call purportedly from a phone company seeking a payment, and ends with all of the money in their victims’ bank accounts being drained.
According to the Global Initiative Against Transnational Crime (GI-TOC), there may be thousands of scam call centers throughout Ukraine as examples of “patriotic criminals”—pro-Ukrainian criminals that are working to support Kyiv’s war efforts—which have proliferated since the invasion.
Some of the so-called patriotic criminals are donating thousands of dollars to Ukraine’s military, the Daily Beast has previously reported. The criminals’ wartime contributions range from delivering aid and stopping crime to cyberwarfare, according to organized crime experts and members of the Ukrainian underworld.
The Office’s scam always begins the same, explained Stas, a 37-year-old who works in the Kharkiv branch of the underground organization. First, Stas calls the phone numbers that he is assigned for that day, one of up to 200 people he will talk to between the ages of 20 and 50. He then tells the Russians that he is an operator from mobile network companies like Beeline or MTS. “Your number is about to be blocked,” Stas will tell the Russians, “You need to extend your number, or it will be blocked.”
Some Russians are smart enough to detect that the call is a scam, and they hang up, but other times, people fall for the trick. “The main thing is to hook at least one person,” explained Stas.
I’ve heard people go crazy when they lose all their money, property, and homes. But it doesn’t bother me much
Stas
For those who remain on the line, Stas will tell them that the only way to unblock their number is to divulge their Russian taxpayer number, the equivalent of a U.S. Social Security Number. “They start to worry about why their number is being blocked. We start to load them with all sorts of stories, just to keep the person on the line and get their personal data,” said Stas.
Once Stas has the personal information of his victim, he puts the Russian taxpayer number into an encrypted Telegram chatbot, where the next stage of the scam begins. Ukrainian hackers have coded the chatbot to collect data on all of the property the Russians own, their credit history, and bank account information. Then, the Office can drain all of the money in all of the Russian bank accounts.
“If they have a good credit history, loans are taken out in their name for up to one and a half million dollars. Requests are sent to all banks in Russia, and all their property is taken away, down to their last piece of clothing,” Stas added.
The most Stas claims to have scammed from one person was a lawyer in Russia, and the amount allegedly totaled to $200,000. Stas receives a total of 15 percent of each successful scam and said that he makes an estimated $30,000 a year from The Office. The average salary for Ukraine in 2023 was $6,060, according to The State Statistic Service of Ukraine.
While the World Bank estimated that 24 percent of Ukrainians were living in poverty in 2022, the Office offers financial stability for some as the war rages on.
Stas said that he does not feel remorse for scamming the Russians, adding that the gullible Russians are “pure a–holes.” When asked if he felt sorry for the victims, Stas said, “I feel sad when our guys are killed. I feel sad for that, but not for them (Russians).”
“I don’t feel guilty. I’ve heard people go crazy when they lose all their money, property, and homes. But it doesn’t bother me much,” he added.
Others who work for the Office see it as a means to an end when seasonal work dries up. A man named Sasha in Kharkiv only worked for the phone-bank scam in the winter and said that he did not like the work much, deeming it boring and finding that he did not feel good that he was scamming normal civilians.
“I just thought about if you put it in the place of close relatives, it’s unpleasant, and in general, it’s a pity for the Russians,” Sasha said. Still, he says: “I don’t feel sorry for them.”
Both the GI-TOC and Sasha have said that the phone bank scam targets everyone in Russia, including people over 50, despite Stas’ claim he never speaks with elderly people. Sasha said that he made just $3,000 from his work at yhe Office over a three-month period but that he has seen others make “insane amounts of money” and drive to work in luxury cars.
Sasha claimed that many people who work at the Office donate parts of their income to Ukraine’s military, which was backed by a verified source the Daily Beast spoke to on the condition of anonymity. When asked if Ukraine’s military knows about the scam, our source declined to comment.
Stas claimed to donate half of his annual income to Ukraine’s military, leaving just $15,000 a year for him and his family to live off. The money, Stas noted, is enough for him, but he acknowledged that he could be living far better than he does now.
Stas is from Saltivka, a neighborhood in Kharkiv that has been pummeled constantly over the last two and a half years. In the first year of the war, Stas’ apartment was struck in a missile attack, leaving his family without a home. They moved into Stas’ parents’ home and are currently looking for new housing.
Stas could use the money from the Office to find a nice apartment in a safer area of Kharkiv, but still he chooses to donate most of his income to brigades, like the one his brother fights for in Donbas. Over the course of the war, Stas said that he has known over 400 men who were killed in combat, many of them dating back to his days as an athlete.
“It’s hard for me whenever I learn that our guys are dying. I grew up here,” he said. “This is my country, at least. Even if it hasn’t given me anything, it’s my homeland. I grew up here. My whole life has been here.”
