I Have Been Scammed! (Prosecution of Scammers in Russia and Ukraine)

Oleg Elsukov (1983) and Sergey Chetverikov (1985), from Yoshkar-Ola, Mari El Republic, were found guilty of defrauding a German citizen, Frederick D., of 28,400 euros in 2005-2006. The scammers used stolen pictures of Russian ballerina Anastasia Volchkova. The case was heard by Yoshkar-Olinskiy Municipal Court in the spring of 2007.

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ONE OF THE LONGEST OPERATING SCAMMERS, ALENA FEDOROVSKAYA, AND HER CO-CONSPIRATOR, VLADIMIR OSIPOV, HAVE BEEN FINALLY CAUGHT.

Alena Fedorovskaya and Vladimir Osipov, the creators of several fake marriage and travel agencies, have been sentenced to 5 years, and 5 years and 6 months, respectively, on October 30th, 2006, by Verkh-Istetskiy Court of Ekaterinburg, Russia.

http://www.ural.kp.ru/2006/10/31/doc145182/

(photo courtesy of http://www.ural.kp.ru/2006/10/31/doc145182/)

What NOT to do:

do not delete or throw away the scammers' letters, pictures and records of your money transfers
do not provide the scammers with links to black lists where their pictures may already be posted
do not send the scammers any more money no matter what they says.

What to do:

1. Contacting WU (or MoneyGram)

Locate your Western Union or MoneyGram receipts
Contact Western Union or MoneyGram and request information about the pick up date and location of the money transfer(s).
ADDITIONALLY: Also ask the representative what kind of steps you can take to place a warning on the receiver’s name, so the next time someone tries to send money to this person they would be warned by a WU /MoneyGram agent that such a warning has been placed on the lady’s name.

Please tell us about your experience with requesting this information from Western Union / Money Gram! Your information may help others!

2. Collecting other evidence for the complaint

Contact your Embassy in the scammer’s country (ex., if the scammer if from Russia, contact your Embassy in Moscow) and ask them if a visa was issued for a lady by such name. Confirm that there was no visa issued.
If you have her flight itinerary, contact the air carrier listed in the itinerary and confirm that a passenger by that name did not booked a ticket, or that a ticket was purchased but later cancelled. Request this information in writing.
Collect all her pictures and letters
Post information about the scammer on as many black lists and anti-scam forums as you can.

3. Writing a complaint

Fill out the form below to obtain from me a complete sample of the complaint and the instructions for proper filing procedures (you should get all instructions by email from me shortly)
Obtain a sample of the complaint and the filing instructions
Decide whether you need help with compiling the complaint
Write a complaint (with or without my help). Make sure to follow the instructions.
Find a translator who would translate your complaint into Russian
Notarize both the translation and the original of the complaint

4. Send the complaint to Russian / Ukrainian police.

Mail your complaint and all the supporting documents to the scammer's local office of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (addresses for the Offices of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus will be provided to you).

My agency can help you with prosecution, from complaint writing to representing your interests in Russia if your scammer is arrested. Please see Services

Can I get money back from the scammer?

We can try to negotiate a return of your money with the scammers. For that we will need a copy of your complaint and a power of attorney to represent your interests. Please fill out the form below to request an evaluation of your case. Also, please see Services below.

Our Services

Here are the services we can offer to you at this time:

A sample of the complaint and a list of instructions for filing a criminal complaint and starting a criminal case: FREE

Fill out the form to receive them. I should be able to email them to you within a day or so.

Assistance with writing and mailing the criminal complaint complaint: $100

Police will not be able to act upon an improperly filed or written complaint. If you want to write the complaint yourself, be sure to follow EVERY instruction that we provide. Otherwise, ask me and I will help to make sure that the complaint you send will be more than sufficient to open a criminal case. So far, I have assisted about 32 people with writing complaints. Out of those 32 complaints, only 1 was rejected, because the client misunderstood the notarization requirements.

Assistance with prosecution: $350

In some cities, we have close contacts with the local police, and can help you to move your case against scammers at the fastest speed possible.

Assistance with negotiating the return of your money with the scammer: we will keep an agreed upon percent of the returned amount.

SUBMIT A REQUEST FOR PROSECUTION ASSISTANCE

Please request the information from Western Union before completing the form. It will allow me to assist you faster.

Information about yourself:
Your name:
Your email address:
Re-type email address:
Your phone number (optional):
Your country:
Information about the scammer(s): Please fill out as much as you can
Scammer(s) name(s): (Please use only the names that the scammer provided you with. Do not use aliases found on the Internet)
(Optional) Scammer(s)' mailing address(es)
(Optional) Scammer(s) phone number(s)
Scammer(s)' email address(es)
(Optional) Do you know of any aliases your scammer might have used? How did you find those aliases?
(Optional) Can you look up the headers' from one of scammer's letter? If yes, please copy and paste the headers info here:
(Optional) Any additional information about the scammer(s) that you think may be helpful to the police.
Information about the scam: Please fill out as much as you can
Total amount you sent (don't forget to specify currency):
Who was the money sent to? List all names.
What was the money supposed to be used for?
Money transfer method used to send the funds (Western Union, MoneyGram, bank transfer, other..?)
Have you contacted Western Union or MoneyGram and checked the location where the money was picked up? What did they tell you?	THIS INFORMATION IS ESSENTIAL. WITHOUT THIS INFORMATION IT WILL BE HARD TO BE ABLE TO FILE FOR PROSECUTION. IF YOU HAVE NOT COMPLETED THIS STEP, PLEASE RETURN TO THE CONTACTING WESTERN UNION / MONEY GRAM SECTION AND COMPLETE THE RECOMMENDED STEPS
(Optional) List dates, amounts, and transfer confirmation numbers or bank account numbers:
Do you have receipts for all transfers?
(Optional) Have you filed complaints with any governmental or law enforcement agencies? List all (optional).
(Optional) Have you found any reports of this scammer on the Internet? Please provide links (optional).
Add any other information you would like to add here:
Which of our services do you want to request?
Send samples of the scammer's letters (optional):
Copy and paste the scammer's first letter here: To Copy: Open the scammer's letter, click somewhere in the middle of the letter, press CTRL+A (at the same time). Everything in the letter should highlight. While it is highlighted, press CTRL+C (at the same time). To Paste: Open this page, click in the white space of the data field on the right, and press CTRL+V (at the same time)
Copy and paste the scammer's first money request letter, where the scammer tells you what the money are going to be used for, and how much (s)he needs:

Please double-check all the information you are submitting, because once you click SUBMIT, this information will be sent to our office, you won't be able to make any corrections.

Why shouldn’t I tell her I found out she is a scammer?

Scammers are fast learners. Once they learn how you discovered their plan, they will change their MO to make sure they are not too “obvious”. The more you tell them, the more they learn, and the better they become at what they do.

Why shouldn’t I send her the links to other sites where her pictures are already posted?

Because most likely all that this would achieve is the scammer changing her pictures. Once she changes her pictures, it will become more difficult for potential victims to identify her. In addition the scammer may become a regular visitor of black lists where he/she would steal more photos, more prewritten letters and come up with new ideas on how to make her job even more fun. So, please do not give the scammer the tools to become better a scammer.

How can I find other victims of this scammer?

Type her name into a Google search engine. Then do the same with her address. If there are some reports about this lady on other black lists, contact the owners of the black lists for contact information.

Why do I need to call Western Union to find out where the money was picked up? I already know where money was sent!

These days the majority of scammers do not want to give you any clues about their actual location within the country (because they are afraid that you could find them later). Therefore they try to convince you that they are from somewhere else. They will tell you that they are from Kazan, Volgograd, Tyumen or Arkhangels. All the while the majority of scammers that we see actually reside in Yoshkar-Ola.

Unfortunately, Western Union and MoneyGram make it easy for the scammers to pick up money from any WU location in the country. So, scammers use this fact to their advantage, making people spend money on background checks in all the wrong cities.

The only way to find the scammer’s true location is to check where she/he picked up the money transfer. Usually a scammer will pick up the transfer in the city she really lives in.

The majority of scammers pick up money in Yoshkar-Ola (according to Western Union).

If I try to prosecute the scammer, will she be punished?

Very possibly. But you will need to preserve the evidence and file the complaint for them to take action. So please follow all the advice on this page as closely as possible.

CURRENT MOSCOW TIME:

E. GARRETT GROUP

14902 PRESTON RD STE 404 PMB 312

DALLAS, TX 75254

Phone: +1 469 371 4961

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