Yoshkar-Ola, Russia, 2011. Yoshkar-Ola City Court was about to hear yet another case of an organised gang of online dating scammers. There were two suspects on the defendants' bench: 35 year-old man, who is considered to be the ringleader, and his 23-year-old male accomplice. They had been accused of creating and running "Sparta" - one of the largest gangs dedicated to online dating scam.
According to the prosecutors, the gang was active from 2000 to 2008. They rented several offices and hired people who used fake female profiles to get to know foreign citizens on the Internet. Then foreigners were tricked into thinking that those gorgeous "women" were in love with them. Being in love too the victims sent money to their virtual girlfriends. One employee had to trick at least 50 foreigners a month receiving 20% of the earnings. The rest (80%) was appropriated by the ringleaders.
The most remarkable thing in this case was the fact that many employees were...TEENAGERS! The youngsters were seduced by the temptation of easy money. They were encouraged to invite their friends to join the gang. So, there was no lack of "brides". Besides, it was pretty hard to quit - those who wanted to do so had to pay up to 5 000 USD to the ringleaders and were threatened and sometimes beaten in case they couldn`t pay.
The criminal activity was exposed when the parents of 4 threatened teenagers decided to go to the police to file complaints. rg.ru.
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