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There have been allegations that Mari El , and in particular its capital city Yoshkar-Ola , are centres of operation for a number of international criminal gangs, who obtain money from people by fraudulent means. A number of dating scams are said to originate in Mari El, whereby criminals will place profiles on dating sites, often using fake identities and photographs (although the profiles will typically state that they come from a variety of locations in Russia and other former Soviet Union states). What they will typical do is establish a correspondence with people, "fall in love" in a very short time, and then attempt to obtain money on various pretexts. Reports vary as to the extent of the problem, with some sources indicating that as many as 50% of the male and 90% of the female profiles on dating sites are bogus. Other sources are more conservative, however, and estimate that only about 10% of the profiles are false. The extent of fraud will vary from site to site, as some dating sites carry out more stringent checks and vetting procedures than others. ARRESTS 13 September 2006 More than a hundred people were detained in the course of a special police operation, which had been held on September 13, 2006 by the Federal Security Service Department of Mari El. The operation was aimed at capturing the Internet scammers who posted introduction profiles on different sites, portraying themselves as women who wanted to get married to foreigners. In those profiles they used other people's photos illegally. Such Mari "fiancees" regularly tapped money from their men, motivating this with the necessity to learn English or paying for the driving lessons. According to the special services, this criminal business was built on the following scheme. The organizers rented apartments in the quietest districts of Yoshkar-Ola, turned them into small offices, equipping them with satellite Internet access and 7 or 10 computers. The role of "fiancees" corresponding with the foreigners were mostly played by the students, who got 10 or 15% of the amount they managed to tap form the clients. August 2006 It was the application from a German citizen, who had transferred 26, 000 euros to his future fiancee's bank account in Yoshkar-Ola, that helped the police officers from "K" department to find the traces of the criminals. "The scammer did not appear to meet her future husband, she also never returned the money, and stopped corresponding. Later it was found out that the German citizen was sent a photo of a famous Russian ballet dancer instead of a picture of his possible fiancee" , informs the press center. Having checked up the information, officers of "K" department, Ministry of Internal Affairs of Mari El republic found out that the correspondence was carried on from a so called "office" settled in an apartment in Yoshkar-Ola, where the seven members of the criminal group were arrested. Also, the police established the identity of the two organizers of the criminal business and the two women with a good knowledge of English, who helped with phone talks with foreigners. During the search there were found 16 computers, a large amount of money, correspondence in foreign languages, bank tickets about money transfers from foreign citizens and other exhibits. See also: Advance Fee Fraud EXTERNAL LINKS |
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