Law enforcement officers detained pseudo-businessmen in St. Petersburg who exchanged pensioners’ money for tickets of the “joke bank”. This was reported by the official representative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia Irina Volk.
“On the trail of pseudo-businessmen, the police came out in the course of work at the request of a 71-year-old resident of the Nevsky district of St. Petersburg. In January of this year, the woman gave 360 thousand rubles to strangers, and in return she received dummies. Finding a substitution, she went to the police, ”said Volk.
According to preliminary information, the scammers worked according to the same scheme, the victims of which were pensioners. On the street, they were approached by “businessmen” from the near abroad and asked to help them get a money transfer at the bank. Then the swindlers persuaded the elderly to withdraw all savings and exchange them for tickets of the “joke bank”, specifies the TV channel “78”.
In addition to a resident of the Nevsky district of St. Petersburg, 79-year-old and 69-year-old residents of Vyborg (Leningrad region) fell for the bait. They lost 800 thousand and 1 million rubles, respectively.
A 25-year-old resident of Samara and a 21-year-old native of Astrakhan were detained on suspicion of committing crimes. Criminal cases were initiated against them under Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The defendants are in custody.
The involvement of the detainees in other episodes of fraud is now being established.