In the Smolensk region, five people were detained for fraud with pensioners' apartments.

Operatives of the Federal Security Service of Russia in the Smolensk region detained five members of an organized group who fraudulently took apartments from citizens. This was announced on March 19 in the press service of the department.

The "black realtors" gained the trust of the victims and, through a controlled notary, received a power of attorney in their name, which allowed them to carry out fraud with real estate. After that, the fraudsters resold the victim's property several times to make the transaction legal.

Among those deceived were people with difficult life situations, suffering from serious illnesses and single pensioners.

"Thus, the attackers managed to take over the apartment of a terminally ill pensioner who died a week after the deal. The property was located in the city of Gagarin, its market value was more than 1.8 million rubles," the department said.

All participants of the said criminal scheme have been detained. A criminal case was opened against them under Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of Russia ("Fraud").

The mask has been charged: a gang of "chameleon" realtors was convicted in Moscow

Participants in the scheme sold other people's real estate, pretending to be the owners of the apartments

Earlier, on February 17, the Tushinsky District Court sentenced Natalia Kotova and Natalia Yeremenko, members of the Chameleon gang, to 14 and 6 years of general regime. According to investigators, the criminals first gained access to the apartments, then they registered them with new, formal owners, and then tried to sell them.