Fraudsters use information about loved ones who are missing or in captivity to mislead relatives and extort money. This was reported by the head of the secretariat of the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War Bohdan Okhrimenko, UNN reports.
Fraudsters contact families via messengers, claiming to have valuable information about their loved ones. Having gained the trust, they start demanding financial rewards.
The Coordination Headquarters transmits information about such cases to the Security Service of Ukraine, the National Police and the Cyber Police for further investigation.
Relatives of captured and missing soldiers are urged to avoid publishing personal data on social media and to contact only official state bodies - the Coordination Headquarters, the Joint Center at the SBU and the National Information Bureau.
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Organizations and institutions involved in the search for missing persons and the exchange of prisoners of war:
- National Information Bureau. For inquiries regarding prisoners of war or soldiers whose whereabouts are unknown: hotline 1648; +38 044 287 81 65 (calls from abroad); e-mail: nib.uncp.info@gmail.com.
- Call center for tracing missing persons under the Commissioner for Missing Persons in Special Circumstances: 0 800 339 247 - from Monday to Friday from 9:00-18:00; 095 896 0421 - on weekends via Viber and Telegram; 099 792 0126 - phone number of the Commissioner for Persons Missing in Special Circumstances; e-mail for appeals: war2022people@gmail.com.
- Central Tracing Agency of the International Committee of the Red Cross: phones: +41 22 730 3600 or +380 800 300 155; e-mail: ctabureau@icrc.org.
- The Joint Center for the Search and Release of Prisoners of War at the Security Service of Ukraine: phone numbers: +38 067 650 83 32; +38 098 087 36 01 (round-the-clock); e-mail: united.centre.ssu@gmail.com.
- Hotline of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine for relatives of killed, captured and missing servicemen. Here you can leave information about your relatives, get psychological help and clarification on the rights of relatives of servicemen: phone: +38 089 420 18 66.