Sber Pays Pensioners 1,000 Rubles Per Minute for Talking to Scammers
Sber has launched the show "These Are Our Babushkas!" — pensioners and comedians keep real scammers on the line and earn 1,000 rubles per minute. The first season runs 30 episodes.
Participants in the new comedy show "These Are Our Babushkas!" — backed by Sber — earn 1,000 rubles for every minute they spend on the phone with a scammer. The premiere aired on the social networks Odnoklassniki and VKontakte, the bank's press service reported.
The format is simple. A pensioner and two comedians form a team. The winner is the one who keeps the fraudster on the line the longest. Each attempt gets three calls: if the scammer hangs up, the clock stops and resumes with the next call. The grandmothers are redirected real — not staged — calls, while the comedians feed them lines.
The first season consists of 30 episodes, each running at least 10 minutes. The rate is fixed: 1,000 rubles per minute of conversation.
Breaking down the schemes of deception was entrusted to actor Alexander Polovtsev, known from the TV series "Streets of Broken Lanterns." He appears in the role of an investigator, commenting on the dialogues and explaining how to recognize a scammer. The show features comedians Karim Kurmangaliev, Yegor Kuksa, Mikhail Zubarev, Eduard Dorodniy, Dmitry Pantykhov, Maksim Baranov, Dmitry Sokolov, and others.
"The show presents real scam schemes in a light and accessible way and teaches people how not to fall for tricks — this is how we make the topic of protection from fraud understandable to everyone," said Natalya Dorkina, Executive Director of Sber's Marketing and Communications Department.
The project's creators remind viewers of the main rule for keeping your money: don't talk to scammers. The irony is that the show teaches you not to engage in conversation — while building every episode around the longest conversation possible. Still, the entertainment packaging gets the job done.
Production is handled by LLC "Trigger" with support from the Institute of Internet Development (ANO "IRI," a state operator of content grants). Filming took place at "Cyberdom," which provided the venue.
What does this change for the audience?
This is not Sber's first entertainment project. In 2021, for its 180th anniversary, the bank released the reality show "180-Degree Turn" on the Friday! TV channel: participants took on their "dream job" at the bank and other companies, trying out a new profession over two weeks.
The new program continues the same logic — finance through entertainment. The target audience is obvious: pensioners remain the prime target of phone fraudsters, and Odnoklassniki is their natural habitat. Showing a scam scheme from the inside, with humor and a real fraudster on the line, is cheaper and more vivid than yet another vigilance poster. The 1,000-ruble-per-minute rate looks modest compared to the damage from a single typical call.
Source: AdIndex
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