A major phone scam has been uncovered in Astana, Kazakhstan, where fraudsters convinced a local resident to withdraw more than 20 million tenge and send it through a delivery service.

According to police, the scheme began with a call from a person posing as an official from the National Bank of Kazakhstan, who warned the victim about an attempt to access his bank account, The Caspian Post reports via Kazakh media.

Under the pretext of “protecting” his funds, the caller persuaded him to transfer an initial amount to a so-called secure account.

Soon after, other individuals contacted the victim, claiming to be law enforcement officers and insisting that the “operation” was ongoing. They gathered information about his savings and convinced him to withdraw a much larger sum for “verification.”

The man ultimately cashed out 21 million tenge, packed the money into a box, and handed it over via courier. The funds were later passed on to accomplices involved in laundering and distributing the stolen cash.

Police have since detained a 43-year-old foreign national suspected of orchestrating the fraud. Investigators believe he played a key role in channeling the stolen money through various accounts.

The suspect has been placed in temporary detention, and the investigation is ongoing.