Trud-Center

How to prosecute for fraud with our help? Let's figure it out. There are more and more scammers. Many people want to fraudulently take possession of a person's property or money. For those who have personally experienced this, it is important to know how to prosecute fraud.

Our fraud lawyer defends suspects (accused) under Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, in addition, if the victim applies, the lawyer comes to his defense.

The procedure for bringing a fraudster to justice

So, in the event of circumstances leading to the loss of money or any property as a result of fraudulent actions or personal inattention and gullibility, the victim of a fraudster, when deciding whether to write a statement, should keep in mind:

The police carry out initial actions to collect evidence and search for the criminal in order to initiate a criminal case and transfer it for further proceedings to the prosecutor's office. Therefore, if the person who committed the fraudulent actions is unknown, and there is no evidence of criminal intent, you must contact us here.

How to file a report regarding fraud?

Any work with the victim begins immediately after he asks for help by filing an appropriate application to initiate a criminal case.

When drawing up an application, it is important to consider:

You can write the petition by hand or print it;
in the “header”, which is located in the upper right corner of the sheet, we indicate the head of the police department to which we are submitting the application;
Just below we indicate your details: full name, residential address, phone number;
the document must have an appropriate name, namely in the middle of the sheet before the descriptive part we write: “Application”;
Next, you should proceed to a description of the crime committed against you, which must contain the date, time and place of the commission of the unlawful acts. The content should be as detailed as possible to allow the act to be assessed precisely from the point of view of criminal law and qualify it as fraud;
in the pleading part, after describing the damage caused and the specified circumstances, it is necessary to apply for the initiation of a criminal case under the relevant article;
do not forget to attach documentary attachments to the application, as well as photos and audio materials (if available);
At the end of writing, you must sign it yourself.

USEFUL : watch the VIDEO with advice from a lawyer on the issue of drawing up a statement regarding fraud

Rules for writing a fraud report to the police

This can be done in any duty station or department. You can also contact the head of the unit personally; the hours and days when citizens are received by management should be on the regional police website. An appeal to management can guarantee that the application will not be sent to departments and an executor will be immediately appointed.

Legal entities affected by fraud also contact the police in the same manner as individuals. The victim is the director or legal representative of the company.

The application must indicate the following:

The name of the department to which you are applying.
Last name, first name and patronymic, as well as the title of the head of the department.
Your full name, as well as your postal address for receiving a response. If you do not live at the place of registration, it is recommended to leave both the address of your actual residence and the address at which you are registered.
Mobile and home phone numbers.
Subject of the statement (in our case, fraud).

After this, you need to write the text of the application. It needs to describe the circumstances of the case in as much detail as possible:

appearance, names of scammers or information about a legal entity;
a list of lost property or a sum of money;
circumstances of the crime, acquaintance with the fraudster, dates of your meetings or telephone conversations;
phone numbers, addresses where you met, make and license plates of the car, all the information you know about the attackers.

You should also collect all the evidence: documents or items received from scammers, screenshots of correspondence, details of calls from a mobile operator, which will confirm the fact of communication with them, photographs or videos confirming the fact of the crime.

Important to remember! There are no unimportant details for an investigation. When writing your application, try to remember everything, even down to the phrase you accidentally said. Only a detailed statement of the circumstances will help you get your money back and punish the criminal.

At the end, you must write the following: “You have been warned about criminal liability for knowingly false denunciation under Article 306 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.” If you managed to collect evidence, you need to write an addition and indicate a list of all things, documents and their copies that are handed over to the police. Finally, the date of compilation and your signature.

Also read: Criminal prosecution under Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation

When you contact the duty station, you will receive a coupon notification that it has been entered into the KUSP journal (Crime Reporting Book). This will be evidence of a written application to the authorities. It will be necessary if the police fail to act.

Sample application:

Law enforcement agencies must process the fraud report within 3 days. The head of the investigative body may increase this period to 10 days, subject to the need to conduct various examinations, research and operational investigative activities. In addition, the prosecutor, at the request of the investigative body, has the right to increase the period for making a decision to 30 days, while indicating all the circumstances that served as the basis for this extension.

What does the sample application contain?

There is no strict regulation of the form of how to make a statement to the prosecutor's office about fraud, but there are certain rules that should be followed, in particular:

The application can be completed by typing and printing on duplicating equipment or written by hand.
In the right corner at the top of the A4 sheet, the details of the addressee (name of the prosecutor's office) and the applicant (full name without abbreviations, address of actual residence, telephone number for contact) are sequentially indicated.
Indented 1-2 lines from the corner inscription, in the middle of the sheet, in capital letters indicates the name of the document - “APPLICATION”.
Indented from the right edge, a mandatory line with the following content is indicated: “Warned about liability under Article 306 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation for knowingly false denunciation,” next to which you should sign.
Having indented another 1 - 2 lines, indented from the right edge, a paragraph of the descriptive part of the application begins, in which all the significant circumstances of the incident should be indicated, including:
date, time of the event and place of transfer of lost property or funds, significant statements by the attacker and possible witnesses to the incident;
a description of the subsequent development of events, allowing one to draw a conclusion about the final loss of property or money, expressing the reluctance of the attacker to return what was received.
After setting out the circumstances, the fact of fraud should be stated, indicating a specific article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, if possible, or without focusing on this.
Next, you need to formulate a request, which, depending on the reason for the request, may be as follows:
conduct an inspection of the activities of an entrepreneur or other structure that allows deception and abuse of the trust of clients and/or consumers in its activities;
bring the attacker to justice for the crime committed, understand the offense and restore the legal state of affairs.
List the attached documents, which may be any documentary evidence of the transfer of property or funds to the fraudster.
Apply your own signature and the date of compilation, which must coincide with the date of submission or mailing of the application.

What not to write

You should not indicate unverified information, personal opinions and speculation, which could be interpreted as a false denunciation, and the defendant could interpret them as slander and file a counterclaim.

It is unacceptable to ask the prosecutor's office to compensate for damage caused by the actions of fraudsters, since material claims of citizens are resolved through civil proceedings, and the justice authorities investigate criminal offenses and organize the bringing of perpetrators to justice.

Insulting statements or uncivilized words that will clearly hinder the consideration of the application are not acceptable.

You should not write an anonymous letter and send such an appeal to the prosecutor’s office, as it will not be considered or even taken into account, which is due to the procedural features of office work.

What documents to attach

The legislation of the Russian Federation does not strictly establish a list of documents that must be submitted along with such an application. But it is necessary to take into account the rule of relevance of evidence. That is, each attached document must reflect certain circumstances of the case and confirm what was said in the application.

In connection with the example statement above, it is worth attaching:

Preliminary agreement for the purchase of real estate.
A certificate of income of the victim, which will confirm that the amount of fraud is significant for him.

In other cases of fraud, the following is provided as evidence:

Receipts.
Invoices and sales contracts.
Documents for the equipment that was stolen by the fraudster.
Bank account statements and screenshots of websites where money was withdrawn.
Documents for real estate that was the subject of fraud.

The police must verify the application within 3 days (in some cases the period may be extended to 10 days) and initiate a criminal case. When filing a fraud complaint with the prosecutor's office, it will take another 3 days to transfer it to the police. There are cases of unjustified refusal to initiate it.

Where to file a report regarding fraud?

Submission to the police department. You can submit your application directly to the duty department. Or you can call officers to the scene of the crime, this is especially important if an on-site inspection is required or testimony from witnesses is needed.
Communication by telephone or verbally. You can also report a crime orally. In this case, the operational officer will draw up a statement based on your words on the protocol form.
Electronic application submission. In addition, you can submit an application using the official website of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation. To do this, you need to fill out the form in the “reception of requests” section, and select “Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation” as the addressee.
Sending an application by mail or courier service. It is also possible to submit an application by sending it by post.

Application submission method

After preparing a written appeal with the appropriate content, you must decide which prosecutor’s office to file a fraud complaint based on the following considerations:

You can minimize the time from application to consideration by submitting an application to the prosecutor’s office unit closest to the victim’s place of residence;
submission to any other department, although acceptable, will lead to a lengthening of the review procedure due to the need to transfer the application to the jurisdiction, which can take from several days to a month or more;
It is permissible to send a letter about fraud to the prosecutor’s office, choosing as the recipient the unit where he lives or where the illegal act was committed. To be notified of the date of receipt of the shipment, it must be with return notice.

When writing a statement to the prosecutor's office regarding the fraudulent actions of an entrepreneur who does not fulfill his contractual obligations, you should remember that in the current version, which came into force on January 10, 2016, Article 159.4 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation has been abolished.

A similar decision was made by the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, which saw in the punishment regulated for entrepreneurs that it was not equal to the severity of the act committed.

Therefore, references to Article 159.4 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation should be avoided, since fraud in the business sphere is now considered in the disposition of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

An important aspect when contacting the prosecutor's office regarding fraud is the possibility of proving that this event took place, because otherwise you can become a defendant in a libel suit from a potential fraudster.

How to submit an application/complaint to the prosecutor's office

In the event that you do not agree with the decision of the police or consider their actions to be unlawful, you can write a complaint to the prosecutor's office.

It must indicate what you disagree with and explain in detail why. All documents and evidence provided must be duplicated in the complaint approximately in the following format:

Also read: What amount is considered a particularly large amount of fraud?

In accordance with current legislation, the prosecutor's office is obliged to consider the submitted application within three days, but this period has the right to be increased to 10 days from the time the complaint was filed. During this time, prosecutors will check the case materials and the legality of the refusal. As a result of the inspection, the decision may be canceled, and in some cases a criminal case may be immediately initiated.

Practice shows that very often the actions of the prosecutor's office and the police are delayed due to long periods of consideration of complaints. First, the prosecutor's office examines the legality of the 10-day refusal, then the police conduct an additional check for another 10 days. In this case, you may again receive a refusal, and the entire process will have to be repeated. If such delay occurs, it is necessary to file an application with the court.

It is considered by the court within 5 days from the date of its registration. If in this case the case is refused, the victim has 10 days to appeal this decision to the appellate court.

Independently defending your rights in court cannot guarantee success. Without experience and knowledge of the laws, it is better to trust a professional lawyer.

How to apply online online

We go to the official website of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. First you need to select the appropriate block at the top of the page.

In the form that opens, you must indicate your full name, postal or email address to receive a response. Email is preferable as it will get a quicker response. Then you will need to write the appeal itself, you can also attach additional files.

Then you need to click on the “Send request” button and wait for a response. Your statement regarding fraud will be registered in the system within 3 days. The duration of consideration is 30 days, but in some cases this period can be extended to 60 days.

The police can initiate a criminal case based on your application, refuse it, and transfer it to the investigative committee. It may be transferred to the county where the crime occurred. This means that the appeal has been considered and accepted, but it will be dealt with by the police of the locality where the offense was committed.

If you have become a victim of fraud, it is recommended that you contact the police as quickly as possible. The more time passes, the more difficult it will be for law enforcement agencies to find the criminal or collect evidence against him.

Before drawing up an application, it is recommended to consult with a lawyer regarding the correctness of the requirements. In addition, an experienced lawyer will tell you which authorities are best to contact in certain conditions and whether you can count on a positive outcome.

Recovery of damages from a fraudster in court

When you know who directly committed fraudulent acts against you, all the necessary evidence is available, you can, without resorting to the above authorities, apply directly to the court for protection by filing a statement of claim in accordance with the jurisdiction and jurisdiction. It is advisable to seek protection in court only if you can prove that fraudulent actions were carried out against you, which led to the loss of funds, property, or any rights, name a specific criminal, and document his intent.

Here it is worth paying attention to the fact that pre-trial dispute resolution measures must be taken. That is, you must send him a written claim and receive a confirmation of delivery (hand it in person with a mark on the second copy or by mail with notification).

It is also necessary to go to court to appeal a decision to refuse to initiate criminal proceedings.

How to write a statement of claim?

In addition to the information that you previously provided to the police, we indicate the description and result of the interaction between the victim and the fraudster and law enforcement agencies, attaching all documents.

USEFUL: more advice from a lawyer on filing a claim in our VIDEO

In the petition part, based on the reasons for the appeal, we can indicate:

recover the required amount of damages from the Defendant

Nevertheless, taking into account the many nuances associated with legal proceedings, we recommend that you seek help in the fight against fraudsters from our professional criminal lawyer.

Time limits for consideration of an application for fraud by the prosecutor's office

What is the time frame for processing the results of an investigation into a fraud complaint at the prosecutor’s office?

The verification of the application is carried out within 10 days, the verification period may be extended on the grounds provided by law. At the end of the verification actions, the prosecutor makes a decision to initiate a criminal case on this fact or to refuse.

The decision on the appeal is drawn up in the form of a written resolution and sent to the applicant by post.

If the responsible person makes a decision to initiate a criminal case, the written decision is submitted for study to the head of the unit, and then to the head of the prosecutor's office.

Management makes a decision to approve the resolution or to return the inspection materials to the contractor for additional measures to investigate the complaint.

When the resolution is approved, the inspection materials are transferred to the investigative authorities and a criminal case is initiated on this fact. The applicant is called again by the investigator to clarify previous data or give new testimony.

If the prosecutor decides not to initiate a criminal case and it is approved by management, the investigation into the fraud claim is terminated. The applicant is notified of this in writing by an appropriate resolution.

How to hold a debtor accountable for fraud?

First you need to understand the situation. Perhaps the debtor is taking or has previously taken actions aimed at repaying the debt, but at some period he did not specifically stop doing this. This doesn't mean he is a fraud. You need to understand the situation and if it turns out that a person actually took out a debt with the intention of not repaying it, something should be done. A receipt or agreement can help with this.

If these documents are not available, it sometimes becomes impossible to prove fraud. Regarding how to prosecute for fraud for a debt, it should be remembered that the court considers all sides of the issue.

He needs hard evidence, so he needs to try to provide it. This may be correspondence and other evidence. Perhaps the conversation with the debtor was recorded on some device. Often law enforcement officers do not immediately open a case, having carried out superficial work; then, appealing the refusal to initiate a criminal case to the prosecutor’s office or court will help.