The police of the North Kazakhstan region monitored WhatsApp chats and came to the conclusion that every third request for help to flood victims was false, the national portal "Adyrna" reported.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs urges Kazakhstan citizens not to trust Internet fraudsters asking them to send money.
"Since the flood in Petropavlovsk, various WhatsApp groups have been created that have united many residents of the city and region. In them, residents discuss the flood situation, share their experiences, and organize help for the victims. Employees of the criminal police department in the North Kazakhstan region are in regular contact with the administrators of the group," the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan reported.
Now the police are carefully investigating information that may be fraudulent.
"Many have come across advertisements about flood victims, bank card numbers and requests for help. Employees of the Cybercrime Department check such advertisements: are the people shown in them real, do they really belong to the accounts to which money is being transferred? About 50 fake ads were detected in six mass chats in three days - about every third person asking for help turned out to be a scammer, says Ivan Terzidi, an employee of the North Kazakhstan Police Department.
Scammers' ads have long been removed, and their authors' numbers have been blocked in chats.
