Ideal traces as an element of the forensic characteristics of "Your relative got into trouble" frauds

Revenko Natal'ya Ivanovna PhD in Law Associate Professor; Department of Criminal Procedure and Criminalistics; Omsk State University named after F.M. Dostoevsky 644099, Russia, Omsk region, Omsk, Krasina str., 2, sq. 40 revenko.ni@mail.ru Other publications by this author

In criminology, one of the elements of the criminalistic characteristics of crimes includes typical traces, or the mechanism of trace formation ^{[1, p. 43]}. When committing fraud against the elderly in the way "Your relative is in trouble", there remains a certain set of material and ideal traces, the knowledge of which will help the investigator in the disclosure and investigation of this type of crime. The mechanism of trace formation is influenced by the method chosen by the fraudster to commit it and transfer funds to the victims ^{[2, p. 85]}.

Dissertation research by S. A. Alekseev ^[3], K. V. Vinogradova ^[4], S. R. Nizaeva ^[5], I.e. Snezhkova ^[6] is devoted to the methodology of investigating hotel types of fraud. The specifics of the investigation of frauds committed against the elderly are contained in the works of G. M. Selyuzhitskaya ^[7], A.V. Sycheva ^[8] and others. However, these works do not focus on the study of ideal traces in fraud cases, in a perfect way "Your relative got into trouble."

The considered method of fraud has recently become widespread ^{[9, p. 95]}. Scammers, as a rule, call a landline phone, find out the cell phone number from the victims and, keeping them in touch for an average of 1.5 – 2 hours, convince them to transfer the money stored in the house through a courier. Fraudsters convince victims that the money is needed to avoid bringing a close relative to criminal responsibility or to carry out an urgent complex operation of a relative injured in an accident (grandson, daughter, son, daughter-in-law, etc.) or a close person, friend. During the investigation, as a rule, only the courier is detained, the identities of other members of the criminal group are not established. Difficulties in identifying the organizers and perpetrators of the criminal group are related to the fact that fraudsters make calls from subscriber numbers belonging to telephone containers located abroad when using IP telephony.

In such an investigative situation, information about the mechanism of the committed crime can be obtained from ideal traces, which in criminology include the testimony of victims, witnesses, suspects, accused, experts, specialists. Revealing the features of ideal traces in this category of criminal cases, N. I. Malykhina and S. V. Kuzmina point out that one of them "is the practical impossibility of the victim to capture the appearance of the fraudster in memory due to the remote nature of the commission of the crime" ^{[10, p. 136]}. Despite the fact that the victims cannot report the appearance of the callers, their testimony is of great importance before the arrest of the fraudulent courier. According to A. A. Kuznetsov, "obtaining information from the victim when committing remote fraud is actually the main evidence of the crime committed" ^{[11, p. 90]}.

During the preliminary investigation, despite the elderly age of the victims, in most cases they give full and exhaustive testimony about the event. B. P. Smagorinsky and A.V. Sycheva, characterizing the behavior of victims of fraud, note that they "take an active position, help the investigation in the disclosure and investigation of the crime: provide all necessary documentation, related to the event under investigation" ^{[12, p. 100]}.

In the presence of certain age-related changes in mental processes, expressed, in particular, in a decrease in critical thinking, an increase in decision-making time, elderly people remember and describe in detail the event quite well due to, as noted by I. V. Yaroslavtseva, S. A. Dorokhina, specific situational thinking characteristic of this category of victims ^{[13, p. 69]}.

Victims in cases of this category indicate quite accurately: the time of receipt of the call; the duration of the conversation; the numbers of the identified phones; the content of the conversation with the scammers; the peculiarities of their voice, the manner of conversation; the names and positions they called; how they were addressed; who was present during the conversation; the circumstances of the traffic accident that happened to their close relative. The victims describe in detail what information they provided to the scammers; the amount of money transferred to couriers; the number of bills and their face value; the packaging of money; the behavior of couriers at the time of receiving money; their appearance, clothes; also describe in detail their behavior after the couriers left, the content of telephone conversations with loved ones after transferring money to couriers, etc.

An analysis of the interrogations of the victims allowed us to conclude that they do not have difficulties in describing the stolen cash and the method of packaging it. So, the victim reported that 320,000 rubles were stolen from her in banknotes: 2,000 rubles – 10 pieces, 5,000 rubles – 60 pieces; she wrapped the money in a cloth, put it in a plastic bag. In another case, testimony was given that the fraudster was given money in the amount of 100,000 rubles in a cardboard package – bills: 14 pieces with a face value of 5,000 rubles and 15 pieces with a face value of 2,000 rubles [Verdict of the Kirovsky District Court of Tomsk dated 12/29/2023 in case No. 1-104/2023 // Judicial and regulatory acts of the Russian Federation. – URL: https://sudact.ru/regular/doc/c08euDEapBN0/].

The victims describe the couriers' appearance in sufficient detail. For example: "I gave the money to a woman who looks about 40 years old, Slavic appearance, height about 175 – 180 cm, medium build, light brown hair color" [Verdict of the Kirovsky District Court of Tomsk dated 12/29/2023 in case No. 1-104/2023]. Another victim described the fraudulent courier as follows: "Opening the door, he saw a woman who looked about 40 years old, about 175 years old, of solid build, large face, plump lips. She was wearing a sweater made of "knitwear" material with an open neck, long sleeves, light color, plain. On the legs are tight knitted leggings of light gray color without drawings" [Verdict of the Kirovsky District Court of Tomsk dated 12/29/2023 in case No. 1-104/2023].

V. I. Bilyk, D. V. Kuzmenko note that the testimony of the victim contributes to "the reliable establishment of the circumstances of the crime event, the identity of the offender, the method of committing the crime, the sources of other ideal, material or virtual traces of the crime" ^{[14, p. 79]}. According to the testimony of the victim about the appearance of the fraudulent courier, his subjective portrait is created, which is later used to search for a person ^{[15, p. 83]}. After the courier is detained, the victims almost always confidently identify him during the investigative action of presenting for identification.

In the legal literature, suggestions are made about the need for a detailed description of the voice of fraudsters who communicated with the victim by phone, for subsequent identification ^{[16, p. 16],[17, p. 23]}. As practice shows in cases of this category, in most cases, victims determine only the gender of the caller by voice or give a general description of the voice of scammers. For example: "According to the voice of a man in his 30s, he spoke very politely and tactfully, he did not have any peculiarities of voice" [Verdict of the Leninsk-Kuznetsk City Court of the Kemerovo region dated 10/27/2023 in case No. 1-705/2023 // Judicial and regulatory acts of the Russian Federation. – URL: https://sudact.ru/regular/doc/BuAZNmMtPBVV/]. This information can be used to put forward a version about the identity of the members of the criminal group, their age, nationality, place of residence, but, in our opinion, it is not enough to identify by voice.

We believe that the production of an investigative action for identification by voice during the investigation of the type of fraud in question is not always advisable for a number of reasons. The perception and memorization of sounds and speech is much more difficult than visual images. Moreover, due to age-related changes in analyzer systems, including the auditory analyzer, it is obvious that it is difficult for elderly people to operate with information coming through this analyzer. Obviously, it is more likely to identify by voice the person with whom the victim communicated for a long time (relative, close friend, colleague, etc.).

We believe that due to short-term communication, elderly people can remember the features of a fraudster's speech in detail and in detail only in some exceptional cases. Firstly, if the caller's speech has certain pronounced features (accent, stuttering, dialect and other pronunciation features). But, as practice shows, persons calling victims have relatively "clean" speech. Secondly, if the features of the fraudster's speech are similar to the pronunciation, phonetics of famous people (for example, politicians, artists) or relatives, friends, etc. Thirdly, those victims whose professional activity was related to the perception of sounds (for example, a musician, sound engineer, etc.) can differentially perceive and remember the features of a fraudster's speech.

Thus, since accurate perception and memorization of speech features in most cases is quite a difficult task for the elderly, there is reason to believe that conducting an investigative action, voice identification should be applied selectively by the investigator in cases where there are grounds for this. In particular, if during the interrogation it was possible to establish that the victim paid attention and remembered certain features of the fraudster's speech, or if the victim has the ability to perceive sound information as a result, for example, of the professional activity of a musician. Otherwise, there is a high probability that it will not be possible to obtain reliable information during the investigative action, voice identification, or even an elderly victim may mistakenly not recognize in the voice of the fraudster the one who called him at the time of the crime.

The ideal traces also include the testimony of witnesses (relatives and acquaintances of the victims), which can be divided into three groups. The first group is the relatives of the victim, who allegedly got into a traffic accident. The second group is the persons to whom the victim informed about the event that happened to him. When investigating this category of criminal cases, it may be the same person. The third group consists of people who were present during his conversation with the scammers. The testimony of all three groups of witnesses is important for establishing the mechanism of committing a crime and proving its event.

The first group of witnesses provides information confirming that they did not get into a traffic accident, did not ask the victim for money. Together with the witnesses of the second group, they report that the victim really had this amount of money and tell from the words of the victim what happened to him, about his behavior after the crime.

Despite the fact that the witnesses of the first group may live in other localities, the investigator must interrogate them independently or send an order to conduct an interrogation. In the practice of investigation, there are examples when investigators do not interrogate a person close to the victim, whose name the fraudster introduced himself, since he lives in another city. So, the victim in the criminal case lived in Tomsk, and her granddaughter, who allegedly got into a traffic accident, lived in another city. The investigator questioned only the daughter of the victim, who lived in Tomsk, who explained during the interrogation that "her daughter lives in another city, was not in Tomsk at the time of the crime, was not going to come, everything is fine with her, did not get into an accident, did not hit anyone" [Verdict of the Kirovsky District Court of Tomsk dated 12/29/2023 in case No. 1-104/2023]. In this example, during the interrogation of the victim's daughter, the investigator received information about the actions of another witness (the victim's granddaughter – the person whose name the fraudster presented himself) according to her mother, instead of directly interrogating the latter.

In the practice of investigation, there are cases when investigators do not take any action at all to identify and interrogate witnesses of the first two categories, proving the fact that an allegedly close relative did not get into trouble only by the testimony of the victim or the person who was present at the time of the transfer of money. In our opinion, in order to verify the version about the non-involvement of a loved one who allegedly got into a traffic accident, he must be interrogated for committed fraudulent actions.

The witnesses of the third group include eyewitness witnesses, who are very rare in cases of this category, which is not typical for traditional fraud. This is due to the fact that the victims of this type of fraud are elderly people who, as a rule, live alone or were alone at home at the time of the crime. However, as practice shows, the witnesses in this case are the elderly relatives of the victim who were nearby at the time of the crime. Due to their age, they may not fully understand the essence of the events taking place, but subsequently describe the actions of the victim, his conversation with scammers, the appearance of the courier and identify the latter during presentation for identification.

In an investigative situation, when a suspect is detained, his testimony is important. Couriers as part of a criminal group often commit many crimes in different cities for a long time and take a conflict-free position during the investigation of all episodes. In all the cases we studied, the couriers confessed, contributed to the disclosure of crimes, which the court took into account when imposing punishment as a mitigating circumstance.

In his testimony, the fraudulent courier describes each episode in detail and tells: about the way he was involved in criminal activity; how communication was maintained with other members of the group; about the victim's place of residence and how he got to him; the appearance of the victim and other persons who were with him; the amount of money, the number of bills, what denomination and how they were packed; how much interest he kept for himself, to which account, which bank and from which bank terminal he transferred money. The suspect confirms the testimony given by him during the interrogation during the investigative action, checking the testimony on the spot. If there are significant contradictions between the testimony of the victim and the suspect, a confrontation is held.

In cases where a fraudulent courier was involved in a criminal group by his acquaintances engaged in the same criminal activity, his testimony will serve as ideal traces. For example, K., who was interrogated as a witness, who had previously been involved in a criminal group, offered V.'s friend to earn extra money by taking money from grandmothers, and told him the phone number of the curator in the Telegram messenger [Verdict of the Leninsk-Kuznetsky City Court of the Kemerovo Region dated 10/27/2023 in case No. 1-705/2023].

The fraudulent courier gets to the place of residence of the victim indicated by the organizers of the crime, as a rule, by taxi. In most cases, he asks the taxi driver to wait and, after committing a crime, gets with the same driver to the place where the ATM is located to transfer money. In this case, the evidentiary value is the testimony of taxi drivers. They name the application used, the car they work on, the specifics of fulfilling the order of interest to the investigator, the appearance of the suspect, his behavior in the car before being delivered to the crime scene and after paying him [Verdict of the Leninsk-Kuznetsky City Court of the Kemerovo Region dated 10/27/2023 in case No. 1-705/2023].

The analysis of the materials of criminal cases shows that the totality of ideal traces in the commission of fraud depends on the method used. At the initial stage of the investigation of frauds committed in the way "Your relative got into trouble", due to the fact that it is not possible to identify the persons who called the victim, the testimony of the victims is of great importance, describing in detail the event that occurred and the appearance of the fraudulent courier.

Important information is provided by witnesses. Thus, three groups of witnesses were identified among the close relatives or acquaintances of the victims. The first group includes persons whose name the scammers presented themselves, the second group includes persons to whom the victim reported the incident, and the third group includes eyewitness witnesses. The testimony of other persons who communicated with the fraudulent courier, in particular taxi drivers, is also important.

The ideal traces in this category include the testimony of suspected couriers who give confessions and contribute to the detection of a crime.

When collecting ideal traces typical of frauds committed in the "Your relative is in trouble" way, it is fundamentally important to take into account the age characteristics of the victims of this type of crime. The investigator should pay special attention to the analysis of the facts on the basis of which a decision is made on the expediency of presenting the victim to identify the suspect by voice.