The groom from Odnoklassniki: as a seller from the Moscow region, she gave more than 2.5 million rubles to a marriage swindler

"Searched all my life"

In October last year, a resident of the Moscow region Elena (name has been changed), who at that time was 46 years old, an unknown man wrote on the Odnoklassniki network.

According to the stated data, her peer from Krasnodar, Alexander Volkov.

Elena herself is a widow, her husband died six years ago.

The woman lives in a communal apartment and works (or rather, worked) as a salesman in a store. 

The stranger wrote that, having accidentally seen her photo, he realized that he was "looking for such a woman all his life."

“I have never met on the Internet.

I did not register on specialized sites.

I don't even just chat in chats.

And "Odnoklassniki" started only to communicate with a narrow circle of close people, - says Elena RT.

- Of course, all this was unusual and strange.

She answered something.

He began to write, talk about himself.

And he wrote like this for two weeks.

Then he offered to go to WhatsApp and communicate by voice. "

According to Elena, Alexander said that he lives in Krasnodar.

There he has a furniture store and points in the market.

My house.

Divorced, but no children.

Judging by the photographs in Odnoklassniki, Alexander loved sports, travel - on the page there are pictures with friends on a fishing trip, on trips.

“You are the one who captured my heart, and now you are its owner.

So I completely and completely belong only to you.

In an amazing moment, when I saw your eyes and your smile, I realized that I would be the happiest man in the whole world, ”Alexander wrote to her.

Elena says that she gradually became attached to his messages and calls, it began to seem to her that she had known this man for a very long time.

“He called in the morning and late at night,” Elena recalls.

"Then he explained why." 

After a month of acquaintance, Alexander confessed that he was in a colony and could call between daily rounds.

“He said that he was convicted of an accident with victims.

They were given four years, of which I have already served half, - says Elena.

"And, they say, he will understand if I break off communication."

The new information, according to Elena, did not bother her: everything in life happens, the main thing is a good person.

And Alexander spoke, as it seemed to her, quite culturally and did not resemble a real criminal.

He wrote to the woman that no one was waiting for him from the zone: he had no wife, no children, or any other relatives, since he was in an orphanage.

They began to make plans for how Elena would wait for him, how she would move to him.

As they adopt two children, they will take them from the Krasnodar orphanage, in which he himself grew up.

“Lap, we will have a boy and a girl.

I want such a girl, I will show you right now, ”Alexander wrote, attaching a video with the child.

Money "for parole"

According to Elena, in order to “bring happiness closer”, Alexander decided to take up parole and asked her for money to bribe the administration of the colony and pay compensation to the victims - without this, parole is not allowed.

According to the woman, Alexander explained: although he is a well-to-do man, his bank account is still arrested, there is no one to sell a city apartment in Krasnodar (second housing, besides the house).

As a result, he asked Elena to borrow more than 100 thousand rubles from Sberbank and transfer it to a friend.

And when she fulfilled the request, he played a real show.

As Elena recalls, during another discussion of her future life together, she heard the clang of the door, shouts and swearing, after which the call was interrupted.

After some time, the woman received a call from a man who introduced himself as Alexander's friend Dima.

He said that they were sitting together, that Sasha had been beaten by the guards and that he was now in the prison infirmary. 

For a whole week, according to the woman, Dmitry called her and told her how brave her groom is, how all the convicts respect him, and advised how to treat Sasha.

From excitement and anxiety, the woman says, she lost five kilograms.

And then Alexander called and asked for more money to settle the conflict with the guards who allegedly could have killed him.

As a result, Elena also took out loans at Post Bank, Tinkoff Bank and VTB 24

worth about 2.4 million rubles.

As soon as the woman transferred this money to the card that Alexander showed her, the groom disappeared.

Fake account

“At first I was not worried.

It is clear that there may be problems with calls in the colony.

I tried to call the existing numbers myself, but they no longer answered.

After two weeks of silence, I started looking for him, ”says Elena RT.

According to her, she uploaded the photo from the page to the image search service and found several more accounts on Odnoklassniki and VKontakte with exactly the same photos on pages registered with different men from different cities.

All accounts turned out to be fake, except for one, from which the profile photo was stolen, as well as pictures from fishing and travel.

“Sergey from St. Petersburg turned out to be their owner.

I wrote and left my phone number.

This Sergey's wife called me back.

She confirmed that the account was real, but that it belonged to a completely different person, not to Alexander Volkov, ”Elena recalls.

Elena is sure that the person who deceived her was in fact serving a sentence at that moment.

“During almost all of our conversations, characteristic sounds were heard.

Rough male voices, swearing, ”Elena recalls. 

All that remained of the groom and his friends were fake accounts, four phone numbers and two bank card numbers.

According to open sources, Elena found out that mobile numbers belong to Stavropol.

Therefore, at first she sent her statements to the law enforcement agencies of the Stavropol Territory.

The police department at her place of residence, as it should be in such situations, got her application in February 2021.

“I gave evidence to the interrogator. More than seven months have passed since then - I have not received any information from the police, ”says Elena.

On October 18, RT sent a request to the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Moscow Region. On October 21, the answer came: “In the proceedings of the investigator of the Investigative Department of the OMVD of Russia for the Mozhaisk city district. there is a criminal case initiated under Part 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, on the fact of fraudulent actions against a local resident. In the course of the investigation, the owners of the phone numbers by which the offenders communicated were identified, as well as the data of bank cards in whose names the accounts were opened. Materials were sent to the Mozhaisk City Court to authorize the receipt of information about phone calls from the phones of fraudsters. Orders were issued to conduct searches. At present, police officers on the territory of the Stavropol Territory are carrying out operational-search measures and investigative actions aimed at establishing the whereabouts and detention of the intruders. "

"Many are absolutely defenseless"

Lawyer Fyodor Bogatyryov believes that it is no longer possible to return the money.

“The funds received from the victim are usually already spent.

Often they simply went to the thieves' common fund and will not return from there.

In the event of an effective investigation, it is possible that operatives and investigators will identify some of the criminal's property and arrest him, ”Bogatyryov comments.

Although the likelihood of even part of the money being returned is almost zero, an appeal to law enforcement agencies in such stories is necessary, he notes.

Otherwise, according to the lawyer, the victim himself risks being accused of fraud against the bank - as if he took the money, knowingly knowing that he would not return it.

Therefore, it is necessary that a criminal case be instituted, in which he will be recognized as a victim.

According to Elena, left alone with a heavy loan, she began a personal bankruptcy procedure, which will finally be completed in early 2022.

But losses, restrictions, inconveniences associated with bankruptcy are not the most important thing here.

Elena is still ill.

At the end of December, she was on the verge of suicide.

She was in a neuropsychiatric hospital.

And she is still undergoing outpatient treatment, taking strong antidepressants.

I had to leave work.

Shortly before the publication of this material, the woman was again hospitalized.

There are hundreds of similar stories across the country.

For example, earlier RT told how a doctor from the Moscow region took 15 million rubles for the "groom" in ten banks.

• Psychologist Tatiana Khrushcheva

• © Photo from personal archive

“Fraudsters send the same text to hundreds of addresses.

And someone will definitely bite, '' clinical psychologist Tatyana Khrushcheva explains to RT the mechanism.

- And the question of why a successful young handsome man became interested in her, a woman often does not arise at all.

Well, this is how we are arranged.

In the depths of her soul, everyone is sure that she is the very best and deserves the best. "

Tatyana Khrushcheva provided psychological assistance not only to Elena, but also to other victims of similar scammers.

“Compliments, attention, affectionate words break through the defense. The woman finds herself in the fairy tale she was waiting for. Falls in love. And the euphoria of falling in love changes the hormonal background, scatters attention, dulls the ability to think critically. Many people actually become completely defenseless, - says the psychologist. - When the crook sees that the victim is at the right stage, he turns on abusive behavior: he puts pressure on a sense of duty, causes a feeling of guilt. Latently urges "to behave like a good girl", and many have learned from childhood that they should be just good girls. And a good girl does not leave her beloved in a difficult situation, sacrifices herself and all that jazz. Fraudsters play on this very subtly and skillfully. The fact that this is actually not a favorite, but a phantom, which she herself drew around the fake text and voice on the phone, she does not give an account of herself in euphoria. "