Yekaterinburg, Russia, 2006. Two Russian citizens - Alena Fedorovskaya (27) and Vladimir Osipov (28) - were sentenced over online dating scam. The man was given 5 years and 3 months in prison and his female accomplice received a sentence of 5 years and 2 months.
Alena Fedorovskaya was an URFJI student. She masterminded a plot to make money out of foreign men interested in Russian brides. She asked her partner (Vladimir Osipov) to create a website with her photos and run an online advertising campaign.
Mrs. Fedorovskaya had been chatting with interested men. Usually she duped them into thinking that she was in love with them. Then under a vast number of excuses she asked men to send her money: missed flights, being a victim of robbery etc. After getting money she discontinued relationships. From time to time mr. Osipov moved his website to another domain for security reasons although he used his real passport withdrawing money from their bank accounts. Mrs. Fedorovskaya changed her name several times.
Mrs. Fedorovskaya had been chatting with interested men. Usually she duped them into thinking that she was in love with them. Then under a vast number of excuses she asked men to send her money: missed flights, being a victim of robbery etc. After getting money she discontinued relationships. From time to time mr. Osipov moved his website to another domain for security reasons although he used his real passport withdrawing money from their bank accounts. Mrs. Fedorovskaya changed her name several times.
The business was booming: Julior Colbert sent 1240 USD; mr. Smith lost 1300 USD; mr. Kerchner paid 1800 USD; mr. Corsa - 5 500 USD, mr. Burns - almost 2000 USD, mr. Shmitke - 5 500 USD and mr. Floyd - 5 000 USD. The fairy tale ended when one of the victims, a former Russian citizen mr. Kleshinski from Canada, decided to fly to Russia to file a complaint. The scammers were arrested. As it turned out later there were more than 15 known victims in total (mostly U.S. citizens). The pair obtained more than 1 million rubles from 2000 to 2002. Mr. Osipov bought 2 flats and 3 cars.
Appearing at court mrs. Fedorovskaya pleaded not guilty. She admitted to receiving money from foreign men but all she did, in her own words, was "accepting willingly sent gifts although she didn`t like anybody". Her accomplice mr. Osipov pleaded not guilty too. According to him, he created the website to help mrs. Fedorovskaya find true love. Kp.ru.
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