Getting drawn into a scam
It is only at first glance that the name of the special department seems so serious and incomprehensible. Among themselves, the operatives simply call it the bride department. No, not because only unmarried girls work there. It is much more serious: the new subdivision of the ORCH is engaged in finding and exposing brides. More precisely, fake brides, swindlers who, pretending to be future all-around wives, manage to "con" foreigners and former compatriots living outside the homeland out of tidy sums in foreign currency, after which they disappear with the money.
– In fact, the problem of such scams had been brewing back in 2001: it was then that the number of citizens' complaints to the police about fake brides began to go through the roof, – says Vladimir Akinfiev, an employee of the inquiry department of ORCH-K8. – At present, the department has caught and punished about a hundred people in Russia with administrative fines or criminal sentences. However, according to our data, at least two thousand people operate in this area in total – just imagine how many that is!
– But why do they operate? If your department knows about them, why not simply arrest them?
– That is exactly the subtlety. We can track the correspondence of the fraudsters, we can observe the entire procedure of this scam, but we can arrest and bring a girl to criminal responsibility only at the moment when she breaks the law. To make it clearer, I will explain with examples.
Imagine you live in Germany and in the evenings, after a hard day's work, you relax at home with a computer. You check out a dating site, find a rather attractive girl who claimed to be interested in a long-term relationship, wrote to her. And – oh, miracle! – out of hundreds of letters, she chose yours, replied to you. Then she suggested calling and left her phone number. Then you started writing and calling each other every day. Naturally, some feelings arose. You invite the girl to come visit to meet in real life. This is a normal continuation of the relationship, especially since the girl told you, as if by chance, that she has never been abroad and really dreams of seeing you and your home. Of course, as a true gentleman, you simply must send your chosen one money for a ticket – and certainly first class (let's round the amount to 500 euros – depending on the airline, country of residence). Moreover, she must look great and wants to fly to you in a new dress (another 300 euros), and most importantly – what if you deceive her and don't meet her at the airport? Or have a quarrel? She would then have to live in a hotel for a while, eat something (in general, another 1,000 euros for pocket money). This makes a total of 1,700 euros, or, given the exchange rate in Russia, $2,000. It is this figure that most often appears in our reports. For Russia, the sum is quite impressive; it is impossible to earn such a salary at an ordinary job, but what does it cost a person who lives abroad, believes in a bright future, to spend this money on his dream?
Further, according to Akinfiev, everything happens according to a known scenario. Money is sent through an instant transfer system without opening bank accounts – Western Union or MoneyGram. After receiving the money, the "bride" simply vanishes. Her phone, which turns out to be a mobile, is blocked, her email address is deleted... Only then does the duped suitor begin to realize that he was fooled, kick himself, and seek to punish the offender. But that was not to be.
The citizen transferred the money voluntarily. It was not extorted, there were no threats. It is not payment for any goods, and therefore there is simply no criminal offense. Even if we arrest the girl and claim that she is a fraudster, she will have a weighty argument: "I quarreled with the young man. What business is it of yours?" Thus, a situation arises when, for example, a husband gives his wife his salary and then reports to the police that she robbed him. Absurd? Exactly the same with the "brides." They cannot be brought to justice, no matter where the groom goes – even to Interpol, or even if he comes to Russia and finds the police station at the fraudster's registration address. She is not punishable! Based on the statement of the deceived man, we can only start following the girl, wiretapping her phone, reading her email correspondence, and patiently wait for her to make a mistake and be caught.
– So, those hundred people you caught since the department was created – they slipped up? And in what way?
– I cannot reveal all the intricacies of our work, because the same fraudsters may read this article and simply start acting more carefully next time. But I will surprise you: among that hundred there are a considerable number of men and even organized criminal groups.
– What do you mean?
– As soon as a girl starts doing such scams not alone, but, say, with a friend, it is already a criminal organized community. A gang, if you will. Sometimes hackers – students of technical universities – engage in this. They conduct a long correspondence, and when it comes to phone calls and giving them the girl's first and last name (for the money transfer), they involve their acquaintances (neighbors, relatives). And this is already blatant fraud for profit, and with the involvement of third parties.
Cases from real life
There are many examples of fraudsters being detained. Some cases became public knowledge, and the whole country learned about them. So, about a year ago, a 33-year-old resident of Chelyabinsk was arrested. For two years, on dating sites, he posted photos of a girl he knew, allegedly wishing to marry a foreigner, entered into correspondence with trusting grooms, and then suggested meeting. According to operational data, during his scams, the computer adventurer "fleeced" men from England, Germany, Greece, Turkey, Spain, Belgium and other countries out of $300,000, invested his money in a real estate agency, and managed to become a fairly well-known businessman in the city.
Earlier this year, a student from Cameroon studying at a medical institute was arrested in St. Petersburg. He is accused of having posed as a Russian girl on the Internet, deceiving several foreigners and fleecing them for substantial sums. His legal wife received the money at the bank. After the trial, the student's wife remained free, but the Cameroonian was sent behind bars for six years.
23-year-old Denis Valeyev from the town of Mikhailov in the Ryazan region was a local celebrity. He won various math quizzes and sometimes represented the Ryazan region at international competitions and quizzes. He even won a laptop thanks to his knowledge. He quickly figured out how to handle technology. He posted a photo scanned from a magazine on the Internet and entered into correspondence with the candidate who appeared. At the same time, anticipating incredible profit, he began looking for a girl through whom he could receive money. Denis's former classmate agreed to play the role of bait - for just one thousand rubles. The fraudster's income amounted to $2,500. Now Valeyev is behind bars - he was sentenced to a year and two months in a Ryazan prison.
In Yoshkar-Ola (Republic of Mari El), fraudsters (a group of six men and one woman) operated on a large scale. They posted about 20 photos on various Internet sites and carried on correspondence on behalf of each of the girls. True, when it came to sending money, the virtual bride reported that the name in the profile was just a pseudonym, and that her real name was different. The role of all the girls was played by the only woman in the team, who received all the incoming money. The swindlers were detained, criminal cases were opened under Article 159 of the Russian Criminal Code - fraud on an especially large scale. They have not yet been sentenced: data on the affected grooms is still being collected.
“It happens that swindlers so thoroughly befuddle their victims that they don't even try to think a little, to realize they are simply being conned,” continues Vladimir Akinfiev. “For example, one fraudster from Moscow, also posing as a girl, said he could not provide his passport data because the passport was being reissued, and asked to transfer money to 'daddy's' name (naturally, naming himself). It's obvious to the naked eye that something is not right here, but the curious thing is that four people still made a transfer in his name...”
The geography of these frauds, according to ORCH-K8, is vast. Three cities firmly hold the lead in the number of fake brides: Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Nizhny Novgorod.
– And where do most grooms come from? Can you sketch their social portrait?
“Germany is in first place. Following (in descending order) are Israel, America, France, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Portugal... As for the victims, for the most part they are former Russians - Russians who moved to another country for permanent residence. In general, according to statistics, people from Russia become victims in about 75 out of 100 cases, and in the remaining 25, foreign citizens take the bait. The average age of the 'grooms' is from 25 to 35 years; as a rule, these are men who have been married and are now divorced. Most of them are successful at work (which is understandable: they work all day long, get promotions, and have no time for personal life, so they seek their happiness not at discos and movie theaters, but on the Internet).”
How to recognize a scam?
Over time, ORCH-K8 does not predict a decline in fraud in this area. On the contrary, it expects an increase in swindlers. After all, according to some data, the number of Internet users grows by hundreds of thousands every year. How many of them will figure out how easy it is to dupe trusting foreigners? There is no universal recipe for avoiding becoming a victim, but there are a few tips that Vladimir Akinfiev shared with us. So, most likely you have met a female scammer on the Internet and will be deceived if:
* The girl tells you that she came, for example, to the capital from another city, is studying at an institute, has no friends in the city, and therefore has nowhere to meet men. In fact, the confusion with another city is introduced by fraudsters so that if you ask her to give the address of the institute where she studies or her place of work, she can always get out of it: “Oh, I'm not from here... I don't even know what the street is called. You get off at Okhotny Ryad metro station, and there's a big house on the right - it's there...”
* The girl does not want to talk to you on the phone for a long time, says she is not ready to communicate by phone yet, suggests first getting to know each other through correspondence. Also an obvious sign is if your interlocutor leaves a mobile phone rather than a home phone for contact.
* When you suggest sending money with someone from her relatives or acquaintances, the girl begins to squirm: “I feel so awkward. They'll think I'm some kind of prostitute and you're sending me money to pay for some services... And anyway, how can I take anything from a stranger? Why involve him in our relationship?” At the same time, she will most likely also refuse if you offer to send money to a bank account and will ask you to use some kind of instant transfer system.
* Your interlocutor tells you that she has never been abroad, but at the same time she has a foreign passport, she knows how embassies work, how much a visa costs and how long it will take to process.
* In the ad, the girl uses an unusual pseudonym (Разная, Солнышко, Ласковая, Красивая, Кошечка), without revealing her real name for a long time; or if during the correspondence it turns out that she initially gave you a made-up name, and her real name is different.
* The girl tells you about sick or dead parents, for example, in a car accident, or mentions some misfortune that recently happened to her (fire, robbery). This is a subtle psychological technique designed to make you, out of pity, want to take pity on her and invite her over without unnecessary questions.