From underwear to gadgets
According to the police, members of the organized group have created more than 70 online markets, allegedly specializing in the sale of quality textile products and digital technology. In reality, clothes and linen were sewn in a handicraft way from low-grade raw materials in workshops located on the territory of Moscow and the Moscow region, as well as in the city of Ivanovo, and instead of expensive electronic devices, the accomplices purchased cheap analogues from intermediaries from various regions of Russia.
The fraudulent scheme was developed by two 32-year-old entrepreneurs. To implement their plans, they attracted three more accomplices: a 29-year-old website developer, a 30-year-old advertising placement and promotion specialist, and a 35-year-old buyer of wholesale consignments of goods.
By advertising their sites on social networks, scammers lure users with low prices and high discounts in case of purchasing several products at once. The average check was from 4 to 5 thousand rubles.
Parcels with sand and earth
Delivery of the purchased goods was carried out only after its full payment. However, upon opening the received package, the customer found only a few rags costing from 200 to 300 rubles, or gadgets that did not meet the declared characteristics, or did not work at all. In addition, the attackers put bags of sand or earth in the packages, and after they were sent, they stopped communicating.
During the searches in the apartments of the detainees and the offices they rent, the police seized about 2 million rubles, computer equipment with customer databases and bags with samples of products sold.
The involvement of accomplices in the deception of four residents of St. Petersburg was established. For all the facts, criminal cases were initiated under part 4 of article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (fraud committed by an organized group or on an especially large scale). In addition, the investigators have reason to believe that about 150 people from 30 regions of Russia suffered from their actions. The investigation of this case continues, noted in the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region.
