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.
The fraudsters tricked Alliluyev into transferring the money out of his account in order to protect him from swindlers. News outlet MKRU reported that the phony bankers told the pensioner to send funds to several “back-up” accounts, a move they insisted would prevent him from falling victim to scams. Once the elderly man had parted with his cash, the imposters stopped phoning him.
Alliluyev is the son of the sister of Stalin's second wife, Nadezhda Alliluyeva, who was married to the former Soviet premier from 1919 to 1932. Following an argument with Stalin, Alliluyeva took her own life with a gunshot.
This is not the first time, however, that scammers have tried to pull the wool over the 93-year-old’s eyes. In 2021, an intruder tried to steal five million rubles (almost $66,500) from the pensioner. She was caught red-handed by police in his flat as he was handing over the money. The fraudster was sentenced to three and a half years in prison.