"I lent my phone to an acquaintance for 10 minutes." How his acquaintance took out five large loans in a Minsk resident's name

Many have probably lent their phone to an acquaintance at least once: to make a call, check something in the settings, or find information. The case that happened to our hero is a clear example of what consequences such responsiveness can lead to.

— The person who took out loans in my name is Evgeny. We met through a mutual acquaintance. It was at his house, and we just exchanged contacts then. As I was told, he dealt with payments abroad, and I sometimes have services that need to be paid for, so I saved his number: figuring it might be useful.

Back then, he didn't give the impression of someone untrustworthy. A young guy, about 22. Handsome, well-groomed, from a good family, as far as one could tell. He drove a good car, communicated normally, and looked absolutely ordinary. Nothing in his behavior was alarming.

After that acquaintance, we didn't communicate for a long time, but one day he called me himself and said he wanted to meet. Allegedly, he was going to open a barbershop, and I could share my experience with him and help him avoid mistakes. That is, the person wanted to consult about business.

To be honest, at first, I didn't really want to meet him, but that day my child had a concert. I had to arrive in advance, and I happened to have an hour of free time. So, I told Evgeny that we could meet and talk over a cup of coffee.

It was March 12, I remember that day well. We sat, drank coffee, and discussed his barbershop idea. At some point, he asked for my phone.

He said he wanted to check some settings in the mobile operator's personal account because he had a question about business again. I wasn't alarmed at all then: he's an acquaintance, we're sitting next to each other — so I gave him my phone.

He held the phone, probably for about ten minutes. I saw him tapping something, and we continued talking. I had no anxiety at that moment. The meeting itself turned out to be about nothing: he didn't give any specifics about the business, I advised him on something, then I went to my child's concert.

"At first, I thought it was some kind of mistake"

Only a few weeks later, Alexei realized that the most important moment of that meeting was not the conversation about the barbershop at all.

— At the end of the month, I received an SMS saying that I needed to make a loan payment tomorrow. I had no idea what it was about. I hadn't taken out any loans, so at first, I just ignored the message. I thought someone had dialed the wrong number or it was just a spam message.

The next day, another message came — this time about being overdue. Then I decided to figure out what was what. I called the company, but couldn't get through, then I wrote them an email.

In parallel, I tried to register in the personal account to see what was happening, but the system informed me that my phone number was already in use.

Павялічыць

After some time, the company employees replied that a loan was indeed taken out in my name, and it was already overdue. The amount was about 1500 rubles.

I asked them to send all the information: when the registration in the personal account took place, when the loan was issued, and to which card the money was transferred.

When I saw the dates, everything immediately clicked. The registration and loan application happened exactly on the day we were sitting with Evgeny in the cafe. The money, however, did not go to my card.

During registration, he indicated a card that belonged to him, and in the owner's name field, he simply entered mine in Latin characters, and even with errors. That is, the loan was taken out in my name, but a completely different person received it on a different card.

The most obvious question in this story is: how is this even possible? Is it really possible to take out a loan without visiting the organization, without the person for whom it is being taken, and without a passport in hand? It turned out that anything is possible in this life.

— Afterwards, I replayed that meeting many times in my head and tried to understand what could possibly be done in such a short time. Only later, when I started looking into it, did I realize that this time was enough to register through the MSI (Interbank Identification System). All confirmation codes came to my number, and the phone was in his hands at that moment. I didn't even suspect then that something could be arranged this way.

"He wrote an IOU and said he just didn't have time to return the money"

The first SMS messages sent by the microfinance organization indicated only one loan, but, as it later turned out, there were many more.

Alexei decided not to go to the police immediately, but first to give Evgeny a chance to explain everything and return the money.

— I immediately called our mutual acquaintance, who introduced me to Evgeny, and said that we needed to arrange a meeting. While we were arranging the meeting, it turned out that the problem was much more serious than I thought.

While at first, it was about one loan of 1500 rubles, it soon became clear that there were already five of them. In ten minutes with my phone, he managed to issue several agreements for a total of 8600 rubles. Taking into account interest, more than 10 thousand had to be repaid.

When the three of us met, Evgeny denied nothing. He personally wrote an IOU, in which he admitted that he had taken out the loans and promised to return the money.

Павялічыць

He explained his actions by saying that he urgently needed money, and he intended to pay off the loans before I even noticed anything, but he didn't have time.

After that, I gave him a month to repay the debt, and if he didn't close it, I would go to the police and file a report. Each time he promised that he would transfer the money soon: he said he would bring at least part of the amount, asked to wait a little longer. But in the end, he didn't return a single ruble in a month.

"It turned out that I was the one who had to go to court"

After it became clear that no one was going to return the money voluntarily, Alexei went to the police. But the story did not end there — several court proceedings awaited him, and he himself ended up being the defendant.

— When it became clear that Evgeny was not going to keep his promises, I filed a report with the police. Honestly, back then it seemed: since there is an IOU where the person personally admits to taking out the loans, the matter should be resolved quite quickly. But everything turned out to be much more complicated.

While the police investigation is ongoing, I started receiving lawsuits from people who lent money through the platform.

Formally, according to the documents, I was listed as the borrower, so they had claims against me. At the same time, I never received the money myself: it went directly to Evgeny's card.

Each loan turned out to be a separate agreement with a separate person, so the courts are held at the place of residence of each lender.

Because of this, I had to travel to different cities. For example, I went to Gomel twice, and there the court accepted my arguments. I presented the IOU, explained that another person received the money, and the court agreed to replace the defendant. Instead of me, Evgeny was recognized as the proper defendant in these agreements.

But it wasn't like that everywhere. One of the lenders in Minsk refused to change the defendant. Apparently, he decided that nothing could be recovered from Evgeny, which means it's easier to continue suing me. Therefore, now I have to defend myself in another process and prove the same thing again and again.

Instead of doing my job, I've been traveling to courts for several months, consulting with lawyers, and collecting documents to prove an obvious thing: the loans were taken out by a completely different person.

"Now I also have to restore my credit history"

— Even if all the lawsuits end in my favor, the story won't end there. While the proceedings are ongoing, all these loans are counted against me. There are already overdue payments on them, so my credit history is most likely damaged. Now, if you look at my data, it gives the impression that, including interest, I owe almost 30 thousand rubles.

And the most frustrating thing is that this won't automatically disappear. As far as I understand, after the courts are concluded, I will have to separately push to have this information removed from my credit history — most likely, again through courts and knocking on the doors of other organizations. In the best case, this will take about a year.

— When was the last time you spoke with Evgeny?

— After I filed a police report, we no longer communicated. At first, I still wanted him to just pay off these debts and for everything to end there, but now there's no point in that anymore. I still have to go to court and prove that I didn't take out these loans. Now the police are handling it, and my task is to submit all the documents and ensure that I am no longer considered the borrower. Let the law enforcement agencies deal with Evgeny further.

Later, I began to realize that my story is most likely not the only one. During the investigations, the investigator said that colleagues already have a similar case involving the same person. In court, I was also given to understand that it might not be a single incident.

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