In Karaganda, three women posing as "healers" and "fortune-tellers" tricked a 78-year-old pensioner out of her gold jewelry and money worth 15 million tenge. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Sputnik Kazakhstan.
The incident occurred in December of last year. Three strangers approached the elderly woman on the street as she was returning home and engaged her in conversation. Initially, they asked for directions to a dental clinic, then gained the pensioner's trust and moved on to psychological pressure.
The fraudsters' method
One of the suspects told the woman that she had "an old curse placed by a close person" and that if it were not removed immediately, the life of someone dear to her would be in danger. Believing these frightening words, the pensioner unquestioningly followed all the fraudsters' instructions.
The women first suggested buying a "cleansing needle" and performed various rituals. Then they asked her to bring raw eggs from home, and finally demanded that she wrap all her gold jewelry and money in newspaper to remove the curse.
The pensioner's suspicion
In turn, they gave her a sealed bundle and told her to open it only after 40 days, burn the contents, and bring the ashes to the same place. However, that very night, suspecting something was wrong, the pensioner opened the bundle and found only empty paper inside.
Thus, gold jewelry and accumulated funds totaling 15 million tenge were stolen.
Detention of the suspects
Thanks to the detailed descriptions provided by the victim, officers of the criminal police department of the Karaganda region police department traced the suspects. During the investigation, it was established that they are residents of Pavlodar and Almaty cities, as well as the Zhetysu region, and may have previously been involved in similar fraudulent activities.
Searches at their registered addresses yielded no results, but based on operational information, it became known that the suspects were in the city of Temirtau, where they were detained. Later, the victim identified them at the police department named after Kazybek bi in Karaganda.
Currently, necessary investigative actions are being carried out regarding this incident. The suspects have been placed in a temporary detention facility.