The nephew of Joseph Stalin, the man who ruled the Soviet Union with an iron fist for three decades, has fallen prey to scammers in Moscow. The fraudsters managed to claw hundreds of thousands of dollars out of the senior in the space of a few months, Russian media has reported.
On Wednesday last, a law enforcement source told TASS that Leonid Alliluyev, a 93-year-old WWII veteran, had sought police help after conmen convinced him to transfer 16 million rubles (over $213,000) last autumn.
Despite the alleged fraud happening months prior, Alliluyev only turned to the police on February 8.
The Moscow Police Department’s press service confirmed to TASS that the pensioner had gotten in contact with them. According to their account of events, the war veteran received a call from an unknown man in early September who falsely introduced himself as a bank employee.