“I thought I was going to a call center that works only for the benefit of Ukraine, deceiving citizens from Russia for money, but then gossip started to spread…”. “If you are looking for a barista job with a salary of UAH 50,000 from the first month, this is definitely not a “barista”.” “The salary is 3–4 times higher than at a normal job, but then it is no longer possible to quit “without problems.”
The Internet is now flooded with offers for “office” jobs. But above were the responses you can now hear from hundreds of people who worked or still work in so-called “offices” — illegal call centers that massively scam people for money not only in Russia, but also throughout Ukraine.
In this article, we decided to share some kind of feedback from inside the “offices,” that is, from people who once worked there and agreed to talk about it publicly in an interview with Eva Korszyk on her YouTube channel .
Read also: TOP 4 best arthouse dramas and one comedy for the soul from Kateryna Kuznetsova
How it all begins (how people are “searched for”)
According to the speaker, who works directly with victims of such structures, there are already over 1,000 such offices in Kyiv, and over 10,000 across the country . And their number continues to grow.
Newcomers are sought through well-known job sites. Ads are placed under “usual” positions: barista, loader, administrator, cook, time operator, or simply a store call center operator.
After the interview, the potential candidate learns the whole truth, but some, stunned by promises of UAH 100,000 in income, immediately agree to take the risk.
And here is the first trigger: Everyone who agrees to “work” (to cheat people for money) must pass a polygraph (lie detector). Then there are also regular checks: monthly or quarterly. This is done constantly by those who worked there, to exclude information leakage, cooperation with law enforcement or attempts to cooperate with competitors.
Internal hierarchy of the “office” like in TOP sales companies
People who worked inside describe a clear structure where everyone has a link in the system:
- The “coolie” is the one who calls the victims first and “warms them up” with scripts about scammers trying to hack their account and the need to transfer funds to the “scammer’s secure account.” If the “fish bites,” they pass it on for full processing for all the money and even real estate.
- “Closer” (from the English closer – “closer”) is the next and most experienced employee who finally “closes” the deal and forces the person to transfer money, sell property, take out a loan and send all of this to the scammers’ accounts.
- Next in the hierarchy are the “Senior in the cold” and the “Senior in the closes” – they monitor their charges, their work, the flow of clients, and monitor order.
- “Office manager” is the highest level in a particular office, a kind of director of a “branch” on site.
Scammers call victims in call centers “elephant” among themselves , and their main task is to psychologically manipulate a person down to the last coin, so that they succumb to their psychological tricks and give and sell everything.
How much do they actually earn?
- The so-called “Holodnik” who calls ordinary citizens and tries to find a victim receives: $500 fixed + 8% from each successful victim.
- The “closer” who must force a person who has succumbed to fraudulent provocation to pay: the rate is much higher — up to 15% of the amount.
Former employees share that there were real cases when victims sold apartments for $160,000 and completely gave all the money to scammers.
Read also: Chernihiv power outage schedule: exact schedule 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 groups
Why don’t people leave there?
Most of those who have already worked in such an “office” say the same thing: “You won’t earn that much at a regular job,” and “just leaving” won’t work because they don’t always let you “leave” so easily. Many employees, after their first serious earnings, no longer want to return to “regular” positions and work for years, while others cannot leave this business for fear of pressure, blackmail, or direct threats to themselves or their families.
Important points in work
Many call centers that supposedly “only serve the Russian Federation” actually often work for Ukrainians. Call centers in the temporarily occupied territories are especially active in serving Ukrainians, as they speak Ukrainian and are familiar with the work of foreign banks.
One of the interlocutors says that you need to make 100 to 200 cold calls per day and bring 1 or 2 clients from them for a “closer,” if the plan is not followed, it is a problem.
All employees maintain a common board of “who earned how much” to serve as an incentive for beginners and those who are lagging behind.
However, all this often ends with searches and raids. As the interlocutor stated, the idea of leaving began to arise, including after they put their faces on the ground during the search and then often questioned about the case.
Read also: What business to open during the war without your own funds in 2026? (For a grant)
In the end
Everyone who worked in the so-called “offices”, that is, fraudulent call centers to extort money from people over the phone, posing as bank employees or other individuals, frankly speaking, from the very beginning were not “happy” either with their work or with the “promised income”. Although most of them were only looking for easy money, the real money was not received by them, but by the managers themselves. Moreover, they had to perform all the morally dirty work with a constant risk of going to prison due to constant searches. It should be noted separately that this is not just criminal liability, but a serious crime provided for by Article 190 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, liability for such actions can reach twelve years of imprisonment with confiscation of all property.
A separate problem is the inability to leave work “of your own free will,” because it is here that the realization comes that simply applying to “leave” becomes scary, since according to rumors, many people do not do it without problems, and many people stay only because they could not leave.
As they say in such cases: the entrance costs “one” $, and the exit costs “two $” .
Subscribe to daily notifications about News in Ukraine on Viber by clicking on this text!
