Swindlers Matched US Men with Russian Girls

The beauties turned out to be elusive
An American couple offered to acquaint American men craving for love with Russian girls who never really existed. Consideration of a case connected with the swindle in a San Diego court coincided with Saturday's statement by US Attorney General John Ashcroft. The attorney general declared war on Internet swindlers, who are so numerous in the USA now.

The couple developed a very simple scheme for cheating money out of American men, and, although the con was very simple indeed, over a dozen Americans fell for it.

Robert McCoy and Anna Gruntovaya created an Internet site to get lonely American men acquainted with beautiful Russian girls. The latter eagerly sent letters in response to correspondence from American men and even enclosed their pictures. However, as it turned out, there were no Russian girls at all. The money that the elusive Russian girls asked for "a flight to the USA for a first date" was in fact received by the swindlers.

The investigation of the case reveals the unsuspecting American men transferred up to $600,000 to the swindlers. A court session is to be held on Thursday; a decision will be made as to whether the couple must remain in jail and will determine the amount of bail.

John Ashcroft says that 135 swindlers operating on the Internet have been brought to trial within the past months in the USA. The crimes in which people are involved range from organizing fake Internet auctions to making fake bank websites that helped the swindlers obtain numbers of bank accounts.

NEWSru.com