| |
Canadian Helps Bust Bride Scam - March 5, 2005
A Canadian man in love with an imaginary Russian woman has
helped Yekaterinburg police arrest a couple behind an Internet
scam that cheated love-struck foreigners out of thousands
of dollars.
The Canadian citizen became worried about the bride-to-be
he had met through the web site after she wrote to say that
all the money he had sent her had been stolen by the Russian
mafia, Yekaterinburg police said.
In fact, the bride was nothing but the criminal imagination
of a local couple, police spokesman Valery Gorelikh said by
telephone Thursday. The couple, which he refused to identify,
ran a web site called Russian Girls that had consisted entirely
of photos of nonexistent would-be brides.
The gullible would-be fiancees were scammed out of money through
letters asking for money from the fake women, as well as by
a section on the web site where the men could buy imaginary
gifts for the imaginary women.
On hearing the news about the voracious mafia, the Canadian,
whom Gorelikh also refused to identify, flew out to Russia
to help his would-be bride. He contacted the British consulate
in Yekaterinburg, who immediately sent him to the police.
The police traced the couple when they continued to write
letters to the Canadian.
Gorelikh said the couple would be charged with fraud under
Article 159 of the Criminal Code, which carries a maximum
sentence of 10 years in jail.
Complaints about fraudulent Russian bride web sites are common.
The U.S. Embassy said last year that it was getting up to
10 calls per day from men who had been duped.
The embassy directs the men to (not Jim's), a web site that
explains the various scams.
Another web site, (not Jim's, either), has a list 15 pages
long of women suspected of having scammed foreign men, and
offers a paid service for men to check out the person they
think they are communicating with.
Despite the rise in cases, there have been very few convictions.
source: Moscow
Times
Back to NEWS
|
|
