Police in Bălți detained a 20-year-old man earlier this week after he arrived to collect 99,000 lei from an 89-year-old woman targeted by a telephone scam.
The fraud followed a familiar script: the woman was told that one of her relatives had been involved in a serious road accident and that money was urgently needed. Instead of panicking, the pensioner checked the information and contacted the police. Officers caught the suspect while the money was being handed over.
Bălți phone scam exposes wider problem
The woman’s response prevented her from losing her savings and helped police detain the alleged courier. However, catching low-level intermediaries does not resolve the broader problem of organised telephone fraud.
The detained man appears to have been a minor participant following the widely known “relative in an accident” script rather than an organiser of the scheme.
Government critics argue that the greater threat comes from coordinated call centres operating outside Moldova, including alleged networks based in neighbouring Ukraine. They accuse the authorities of failing to investigate these operations thoroughly because of Chișinău’s close political relationship with Kyiv.
Such claims remain politically contentious, but the rapid growth in recorded losses shows that telephone fraud has become a major criminal problem in Moldova.
Fraud losses rise sharply
General Police Inspectorate chief Viorel Cernăuțeanu recently said that more than 1,500 fraud cases had been recorded during the first five months of 2026.
In 2023, criminals reportedly obtained around 40 million lei from victims. The figure more than tripled to 130 million lei in 2024 before rising again to 272 million lei in 2025.
During the first five months of 2026 alone, reported losses had already reached 157 million lei. The figures suggest that fraudsters are becoming more organised and increasingly effective at persuading victims to transfer money or disclose sensitive financial information.
Criminals adopt new methods
The “relative in an accident” scam remains common, particularly among crimes targeting older people, but fraudsters are using a growing range of techniques.
Moldovans are frequently targeted through phishing links and fraudulent cryptocurrency investment offers, which account for around 17% of reported cases.
Almost one-third of victims were deceived by callers posing as bank employees. In around one in ten cases, fraudsters claimed to represent the police or prosecutors and threatened victims with criminal proceedings unless they followed instructions or transferred money.
The Bălți phone scam shows that public awareness can prevent losses, but the scale of the figures indicates that arrests of individual couriers will have limited impact unless investigators also identify those organising and financing the networks.
