Six individuals have been sentenced by the Vyborg District Court of St. Petersburg for defrauding elderly pensioners through telephone scams. The group instilled fear in their victims by fabricating diagnoses and extorting money for nonexistent treatments.

The defendants, Vladimir Lim, Dmitry Novikov, Dmitry Alexandrov, Alexei Karpishin, Natalya Galybina, and Anna Fedosova, were found guilty of defrauding elderly individuals in St. Petersburg and Moscow.

The scammers targeted individuals, primarily women over the age of 75, convincing them they had a “rare disease” requiring immediate treatment with “blockade medications.” They also fabricated scenarios involving hospitalization requiring upfront payment.

Victims were instructed to hand over cash to couriers posing as medical institution employees. Believing the scam, the pensioners complied and relinquished their money.

The court found all six defendants guilty of fraud committed by a group of persons on an especially large scale, as defined by Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

Vladimir Lim received a sentence of 6.5 years in a general regime colony, while Dmitry Novikov was sentenced to 4.5 years. The remaining defendants, Dmitry Alexandrov, Alexei Karpishin, Natalya Galybina, and Anna Fedosova, received prison sentences ranging from 2.8 to 3 years.

In addition to their prison sentences, the court ordered the convicts to pay a total of 10.46 million rubles in compensation to their victims.