MOSCOW, November 7. /TASS/. Russian police detained 16 people as suspects in a bank fraud case, which left over 1,000 people affected in four Russian regions, the Russian Interior Ministry’s official spokesperson, Irina Volk, told TASS on Thursday.
"Officers of the Russian Interior Ministry directorate in the Altai Region thwarted the activities of a group of people, suspected in a series of large-scale frauds. According to available information, the number of affected persons exceeds 1,000. They are mostly residents of the Altai, Krasnoyarsk, Kemerovo and Novosibirsk regions," she said.
In her words, the suspects promised their victims to help in obtaining bank loans, but in reality misappropriated their money. The operation to detain them was held simultaneously in the four regions.
She said some of the group’s members were tasked with finding people in the need of money, others convinced them that they can help in obtaining a bank loan for a premium. Several members of the group pretended to be bank call center specialists, whose aim was to convince the victims that the bank was processing their request. Besides, some of the detained members of the group were in charge of online advertising.
"At present, four suspects were placed in pretrial custody. The rest have signed a written pledge not to leave," Volk said.