STAVROPOL, September 2 (RIA Novosti) – Police are investigating a large-scale scam in which fraudsters posing as “psychics” reportedly stole millions of rubles from people in southern Russia, a police spokesman said Monday.
The scammers targeted their victims using phone calls and ads on a local TV channel, Lady’s Club TV and 75 crimes are being investigated, police in Russia's Stavropol region said.
Police believe that 19 people in total were involved in the scam, and that they worked out of offices owned by the Zapad-Vostok (West-East) firm in Moscow and Kislovodsk.
“The firm’s employees in fact rendered no [parapsychological] services, they just stole whatever money they got,” he said. One person sent a 1.6 million-ruble ($48,000) check to the firm, investigators said.