Fraudsters Impersonate Anti-Crime Officials in Elaborate Financial Scam

Jerusalem, 22 July, 2025 (TPS-IL) -- Sofia (BTA) – Bulgaria’s General Directorate for Combating Organized Crime (GDBOP) is warning the public about a new financial scam in which fraudsters impersonate GDBOP officials to deceive victims over the phone. Posing as investigators trying to prevent a bank account breach, the scammers manipulate victims into taking out loans or transferring money directly to the fraudsters, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

When a phone call is made from an unknown number, a man, most often introducing himself as “Commissioner Petar Dimitrov Andonov from the Directorate of Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism”, informs a bank customer that he is the victim of a financial fraud, which he is investigating, and demands assistance in preventing the crime. The most frequently cited name is Simeon Angelov Simeonov, who, with a false power of attorney, attempted to withdraw part of the savings or a loan on behalf of the victim.

After the victim of the scam hears that she is talking to a GDBOP employee and that her bank account is being drained at that moment, she is asked to share her personal and banking details, necessary to start the procedure. The scammers claim that they are doing everything for the victim’s benefit.

Part of the procedure involves transferring the amount allegedly withdrawn from the account to the financial institution, which is the account of the fraudsters. The client can choose whether to immediately transfer money to the fraudsters to the provided account, if they have it available at this or another bank, or to withdraw credit – online or physically, which he will again hand over online or physically to persons who will be waiting for it in front of the bank.

The persuasion of the need to follow this procedure is accompanied by assurances that a fictitious employee of the Central Bank will personally refund the transferred amount to the client’s account in the relevant bank within hours. Additionally, an email with attached files is sent. It is characteristic that the documents are sent from email addresses that appear at first glance to come from the GDBOP and a banking institution.

For even greater credibility, the victim is asked to wait on the line until he is connected successively to a “bank employee” and a “central bank employee” who will personally confirm the information already received from the “GDBOP commissioner”. Most often, the alleged representative is a woman, introducing herself as Antoaneta Ivanova Georgieva. She confirms that the procedure requires the consumer to either transfer available funds or withdraw a consumer loan, which will be reimbursed. She also draws attention to the “condition” in the documents that if the procedure is not followed, the client is subject to criminal liability and sanctions, including even confiscation of property and blocking of accounts until the conclusion of the pre-trial proceedings to uncover the crime.

A characteristic of the new financial scam is that the entire time — from the call to the transfer of the money to the fraudsters — the victim is kept on the phone and given no opportunity to communicate or verify the information provided.

The calls come from Bulgarian phone numbers, most often unknown and different, since the fraudsters use internet telephony. Calls have also been registered from real numbers of institutions or private individuals, “set up” by the fraudsters for the scheme. And the imaginary police officers and BNB representatives have a soft accent.

The Cybercrime Directorate of the Bulgarian Anti-Corruption Bureau is already working on several reports received by phone and in person on Monday. It is clear from them that the calls on behalf of the service began at the end of last week, and within hours several attempts to withdraw loans and recover withdrawn amounts from potential victims were prevented. In two of the cases, they were worth 20,000 leva and 70,000 leva.

It is being checked whether criminals have access to banking and other personal information of users, as well as the identity of the perpetrators according to the data known to date.

The Ministry of Interior reminds that anyone who becomes the subject of such a crime, which demands that they immediately withdraw or transfer funds to unknown bank accounts, should immediately terminate the communication, contact the servicing bank, and file a report at the nearest Ministry of Interior office or with the Cybercrime Directorate of the General Directorate for Combating Corruption.

Later, Senior Commissioner Vladimir Dimitrov, Director of the Cybercrime Directorate, told the media that one of the victims had given cryptocurrency. And another had started a procedure to withdraw credit. In addition to the Directorate for the Prevention of Money Laundering, fraud signals have also been filed with the National Police.

The fraudsters are not Bulgarians, they speak with a Russian accent, Dimitrov said. According to him, the banks are also cooperating in uncovering the scheme. The victims were most likely selected through a leaked database, he added.