Ukrainian scammers are using fake dating profiles to swindle thousands of pounds from gullible Russian men to help fund their nation’s war effort.
The group, known as the Monetary Army, use a range of tactics to trick Russian soldiers, cops and military academy students, among other professions, into handing over up to £19,000.
The roughly 100 scammers match with men on Divinchik, a common dating app in Russia, with fake profiles made with the pictures of beautiful women.
Arthur, a Monetary Army scammer, told the Telegraph that once they match with Russian men, their aim is to get them to buy tickets for fake events.
‘During the dialogue when the case comes to the meeting, my task is to invite men to one of the events that we have on a fake home site.
‘For example, to the theatre, stand-up comedy show, ballet, or cinema. And then the man never meets the woman.’
Ukrainian scammers are using fake dating profiles to swindle thousands of pounds from gullible Russian men
The roughly 100 scammers match with men on Divinchik, a common dating app in Russia , with fake profiles made with the pictures of beautiful women
A pair of tickets often goes for around £35, and the marks are asked to pay using cryptocurrencies, touted for their inability to be traced, unlike normal fiat currency.
After the transaction is mad, the scammers will tell the Russian men that they cannot attend the date, and will suggest they ask for a refund.
The customer support Telegram channel, which is often the same scammer on another fake profile, then begins the second part of the scam.
‘The system tells the men to buy two more tickets as a deposit to get a refund for the initial tickets’, Arthur said.
‘Thanks to which they put in more money, in principle, an unlimited amount, depending on how much of a fool he is.
‘They start telling the victim that he made some mistake in filling out the return form. You already put two payments, now you need to put four.’
The Monetary Army often makes around £100 per scam, but the scammer revealed the most money that has ever been taken from one man was £19,000.
A view shows the site of a Russian missile strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in the village of Budy, Kharkiv region
A general view of a private house with its roof destroyed after the Russian attack on July 8, 2024 in Kharkiv, Ukraine
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Defence Minister Rustem Umerov listen to Commander of the Ground Forces colonel general Oleksandr Syrskyi as they visit a position of Ukrainian servicemen in the town of Kupiansk
While part of the money goes to the Ukrainian army, most of it goes to pay staff. Arthur said he makes around £1,600 a month from the job.
But the Ukrainian army will take whatever money it can get, given the state of the war, now in its 28th month.
Russian shelling of Ukraine killed four people on Saturday, officials said, as the two countries exchanged drone attacks, one of which set ablaze a Russian oil depot.
Two people died in Ukraine’s partly occupied Kherson region and two were wounded in the attack close to the regional capital, said Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin.
Two other people died Saturday afternoon and 22 were wounded in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, according to Gov. Oleh Syniehubov.
An oil depot in the Tsimlyansky district, deep inside Russia’s southwestern Rostov region, was set ablaze in the early hours of Saturday following a Ukrainian drone attack – the latest long-range strike by Kyiv’s forces on a border region.