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- Drama on wheels: in Russia, they began to challenge car deals under the "Valley scheme"
Drama on wheels: in Russia, they began to challenge car deals under the "Valley scheme"
Pensioners, victims of fraudulent schemes, began to challenge the purchase and sale of not only housing, but also cars, lawyers told Izvestia. Vehicle owners, acting under the dictation of scammers, sell cars at a reduced price and transfer funds to "safe accounts". When the fraud is discovered, the deal is invalidated, the car is seized from bona fide buyers, and the money ends up in the hands of criminals. Fraudsters find victims through mass phone calls, mostly among pensioners. How to recognize deception at an early stage and avoid making a bad deal is in the Izvestia article.
How the "Valley Effect" works
The number of fraudulent actions with cars of Russians has increased by 40% compared to 2024, experts told Izvestia. One of the latest widespread schemes is the termination of the contract of sale of a vehicle by analogy with the case of the actress Larisa Dolina, deceived by scammers. The court returned her apartment worth 112 million rubles, and the buyer was left without housing and without money. Now the attackers are coming up with new variations of this scheme.
He bought a car from a young girl, and then was arrested on suspicion of embezzlement by Evgeny Durgaryan. He told Izvestia that initially the price for the car was lower than the market price. According to the customer, she urgently needed money to pay for her studies.
— Before concluding the deal, we talked with her, she seemed to be an adequate person who evaluates her actions, — said Evgeny.
Under the video, the girl confirmed that she was not going to transfer money to scammers, and she entered into the deal without pressure.
— We have already heard about such schemes, when they sell a car at an undervalued price and then give the money to scammers. If we had realized then that there was such a situation, we would not have entered into a deal with her," he said.
On the fourth day after the deal was concluded, the man was informed that the car was wanted. He was called to the department, where he was asked to return the car.
— It turned out that she gave the money to the scammers. I refused to return the car, I was detained as a suspect in a theft case," the man shared.
On the advice of his lawyer, Evgeny returned the car.
Eight months later, and after contacting the presidential administration, the Prosecutor General's Office admitted that violations had been committed against the man. It also became known that the real accused of fraud was identified, while he acts as a witness in the case. In addition, a meeting on the termination of the car purchase agreement has already been scheduled.
In July 2025, the Cherepovets City Court of the Vologda Region ruled in a civil case, satisfying the claims of a 64-year-old local resident to invalidate the purchase and sale of a vehicle and restore her ownership of a 2020 Volkswagen car, according to materials on the court's website, which were reviewed by Izvestia.
The woman filed a lawsuit, stating that in November 2024, under the influence of deception and delusion caused by the actions of fraudsters, she sold the car for 2.4 million rubles, which is significantly lower than its market value.
"The plaintiff explained that she had no intention of selling the car, and her actions were the result of unlawful influence from fraudsters. A criminal case was opened on the theft of funds under the article "Fraud". The preliminary investigation has been suspended due to the failure to identify the perpetrators," the court's website says.
As a result, the Cherepovets City Court concluded that at the time of the sale of the car, the plaintiff could not understand the significance of her actions, and declared the car purchase and sale agreements invalid.
How to ingratiate themselves with sellers
Another case occurred in Moscow — a man bought a Volkswagen from a pensioner for 1.8 million rubles. A week later, the new owner decided to sell the car, but the police came to see it first, the media reported.
Law enforcement officers said that the woman was under pressure from fraudsters who forced her to sell property worth 27 million rubles. The pensioner has already gone to court to get her car back.
Similar incidents have occurred in the Kuban, the Ryazan and Moscow regions, and other regions.
Maria Morozova from Moscow, under pressure from fraudsters, sold a car for 750 thousand rubles.
— My page on Gosuslugi was hacked, and a number of car documents were manipulated. After that, they called me, allegedly from the FSB, and informed me that a loan secured by a car had been issued for me," Maria told Izvestia.
The scammers convinced the girl to sell the car urgently in order to cancel the loan and not lose property.
"Various people kept in touch with me non—stop," she shared. "They wouldn't leave me alone for a minute. At first, one person talked for an hour, then another called. They were intimidated that the loan would grow. They kept asking me how many percent of the charge was left. They wanted me to be in touch all the time.
According to her, the scammers gave her a link where the car needed to be sold, and monitored the purchase and sale process. Law enforcement officers contacted the girl on their own when the new owners tried to register the car.
"They started asking if I had sold this car because they had too many questionable documents, so they decided to call me personally and clarify everything, to which I told the whole story," she said.
A day later, Maria found her car near Yekaterinburg. The girl believes that in this way scammers buy cars at a low price for their subsequent resale.
Also at the end of October 2025, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation defended the rights of a bona fide buyer from the Krasnodar Territory who purchased a used car at a car dealership.
When registering the car, it turned out that the car dealership had not notified the rightful owner of the car about the sale, who demanded that the transaction be declared invalid. A forensic examination showed that the signature of the rightful owner was forged — the car was seized, but the money was not returned to the buyer.
The case reached the Supreme Court, which rejected the claim of the former owner of the car. According to the court's ruling, which was reviewed by Izvestia, one forged signature cannot be the only reason for the seizure of the car, because the former owner of the car herself transferred her property with all the documents to the car dealership. In addition, the bank that issued the money secured by the car did not doubt the legality of the transaction.
How fraud develops in the car industry
More than 350 thousand people have been affected by fraud since the beginning of 2025, the total amount of damage amounted to more than 120 billion rubles, experts told Izvestia.
— Cars are not as expensive as apartments, up to about three million rubles, — said lawyer Gennady Kuzmin. — It's much easier to forge documents. In addition, the traffic police and MREL are much easier to register transactions for the alienation of cars than Rosreestr when it comes to apartments.
He also added that scammers have recently become more likely to turn to artificial intelligence. With its help, scammers fake, for example, the voices of relatives or documents. In addition, the victims are under intense psychological pressure.
According to lawyer Alexei Livonov, most of these cases are related to phone fraud.
"Massive phone calls have been recorded, hundreds of thousands of calls and SMS messages are received by victims per day," he noted. — Fraudsters disguised as law enforcement officers and banks force people to sell their property and transfer money to certain secure accounts. I always recommend taking your time. Apply the so-called cooling-off period. It is better to leave a deposit and take a break to think, especially if the price is very much lower than the market price.
Experts also advise making all transactions through a notary public. The specialist will carefully check the information from the registers, for example, whether the seller is registered for disability.
— Moreover, he finds out the moments for what amount you want to sell your property, — said Gennady Kuzmin.
If the amount appears to the notary to be non-marketable, then the notary will never conduct this transaction, experts noted.
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