"Lena 20 Rubles" is back to her old tricks: the famous swindler is once again scamming gullible Belarusians

Barista Anastasiya published a photo of the client on Threads: "Girl, if you recognize yourself in the photo, please return and pay your bill."

But commentators quickly clarified: there's no point in waiting.

Many employees of Minsk cafes and restaurants are well acquainted with the woman — there are mentions that she has been "touring" since 2016.

"I worked as a waitress in the distant year 2016. She was the only visitor who didn't pay the bill during my entire time working there. To be honest, I'm shocked that she's still walking around today. She ate, asked for coffee, and then left as if to get money. I was even so upset that I had to pay for that un-drunk coffee myself."

"She came to my cafe, said her husband forgot his physical card in the car, and asked me to wait until her husband returned. Nothing bothered me, as the clientele in the area is very good. The most ironic part is that she told me how she was scammed out of money, and then she herself scammed me."

"I met her repeatedly in the chain of cafes where I worked. She didn't pay the bill, ran away the first time. The second time, I called the police on her. The police already have a long list of such unpaid bills for her. But she was released — the amount is very small. The case was closed. She continues to walk around, people file reports against her, cases are opened, and then closed. This has been going on for years. The only solution for now: remember her and don't give her anything without payment. The police do nothing with her."

"This lady visited the cafe where I worked three times. The first time she tried to trick us, saying there were problems with her card, but 'just prepare it, I'll pay.' Then twice, sympathetic guests bought her coffee."

Some even admire the woman's talent for living off gullible Belarusians for years and call her a legend of Minsk. Some she managed to deceive twice in one day.

In 2023, blogger Kakabay wrote about her: "Alarming calls are coming from Minsk restaurants: 'Zalatoy Hrabenets', 'Fabrik', 'Le Gos', 'Myloveberry' and several others. They are all united by one unpleasant situation: a girl comes to the establishment, orders food and drinks, usually a check of about 50-100 rubles. Afterward, she leaves as if to meet a friend, and then she is only seen on surveillance camera recordings."

Later, "Onliner" wrote about the woman's adventures — that's when she got the nickname "Lena 20 Rubles" because she would "shoot" residents of Lebyazhiy in Minsk for 20 rubles. Her legend was simple: "My iPhone ran out of battery, I have no cash for a taxi — please help." She would leave her number (a real one) and ask for card details to transfer the debt.

To some, she even returned the money after a few weeks — sometimes a little more than she received. But most often, people were left with nothing. The calculation is simple — few people want to waste time going to the police for 20 rubles.

There were other stories: Lena would ask someone to pay for groceries at the store (because her phone also ran out of battery), she would tell someone about the urgent need to pay for an apartment rented for a day (lying that she had just arrived from Moscow)...

When people started Googling the phone number, they immediately came across records stating that it belonged to a scammer.

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It soon became known that the woman was detained. Law enforcement officials reported: "This is a 35-year-old unemployed woman from Gomel who lives in the capital. The girl has been brought to administrative responsibility. In addition, police officers are currently conducting an investigation and determining her involvement in other illegal activities."

In 2024, Lena, offended by her fame, gave an interview to "Onliner." Her arguments were along the lines of "how am I a swindler if I left a real phone number?!" She assured that she had returned all the money — and didn't answer the phone because what was there for her to talk about with people if the issue was closed.

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And this is what the woman said about her detention: "I entered a shopping center, a security guard ran up to me, stopped me, and called the police. Police officers took me, brought me to the police department, and gave me 10 days for allegedly swearing, but I never swear and I don't drink alcohol. In the police, not a single fact was confirmed that I didn't return money to anyone."

Lena was particularly offended by the phrase "unemployed woman from Gomel" in the news about herself. She claimed that she had been living and working in Minsk since 2013. She said that she had previously graduated from a university in Gomel, then worked there in a bank. But she refused to talk about her work in the capital.

She boasted that she had bought an apartment on Dzerzhinsky Avenue and started building another one in Novaya Borovaya.

Journalists also contacted Lena's family. She had no husband or children at that time. She had a father who lived in a village in the Gomel region, and a brother from Gomel. Her mother had died long ago. Her brother and father knew about their close relative's notorious reputation: the father did not react at all, and the brother only gloated.

"Lena 20 Rubles" complained that in 2019 she was left without 100 thousand dollars at customs — as if the huge money was confiscated because it was not declared. And when journalists asked her to confirm the story, she sent a text about a woman whose 32 thousand dollars were confiscated at the border (she couldn't explain the big difference). The editorial office never received the documents.

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It seems that since then, things have worsened for "Lena 20 Rubles." Now she is scamming not expensive restaurants, but budget cafes. And residents of Novaya Borovaya complain that the woman sleeps in their stairwells and uses shared restrooms.

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