


	Remember me on this computer
	Forgot your password?
	Register

MT news

The Moscow Times was the only newspaper represented at the Russian-American Business Summit, which participated in by Dmitry Medvedev and Barak Obama

On 7 July 2009 The Moscow Times published a special full colour issue of the newspaper, timed to coincide with the visit of Barak Obama to Moscow.

The newspaper was presented at the Russian-American Business Summit, which was organized by the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) and the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RUIE) at Manezh. The forum drew the participation of more than 700 key representatives of Russian and international business, the political elite and non-governmental organizations.



Friday, July 10, 2009 Updated at 10 July 2009 0:46 Moscow Time.

The Moscow Times » Issue 3188 » Crime

Another Victim for the Old Cash Scam

16 June 2005By Carl Schreck / The Moscow Times

City Crime Statistics
June 8 – June 14
Crime	Total	Solved
Murder	24	14
Assault	29	21
Robbery	354	143
Rape	6	5
Theft (total)	1,039	300
Apartment burglaries	252	19
Fraud	75	51
Car theft	53	20
For the Record
Car accidents	223
a) killed	10
b) injured	256
Public drunkenness	3,614
a) detained overnight	1,107
Suicides	25
Missing persons	41
Bodies discovered	72
*City police said statistics in several categories were missing for June 11 due to technical problems.
Source: Moscow police

It is the granddaddy of street scams in Moscow. An unsuspecting tourist is wandering the streets sightseeing when suddenly a man walking in front of him drops a wad of cash and continues on his way, apparently unaware that he has lost his money.

Another man picks up the cash in front of the tourist and with gestures, should there be a language barrier, signals to the visitor that they should split the money. After the tourist agrees and the wealth is divvied up, the man who dropped the wallet returns and demands the money back.

When the tourist agrees and hands over the money, the man claims some of the money is missing and demands, often threatening physical violence, to be reimbursed in full. The unwitting tourist often empties out his wallet, thus failing his first test in Street Scams 101.

The scam has several variations, and city police arrested one man Saturday afternoon in what they said was a particularly crude version of the swindle on a Turkish sports official while he was sightseeing on Red Square.

Policemen arrested a man identified only as Ilya A. after the head of the Turkish rhythmic gymnastics team reported such a scam and described the suspect, police spokeswoman Yelena Perfilova said Wednesday. He is in custody and faces up to six years in jail on fraud charges, she said.

A Turkish Embassy spokesman on Wednesday identified the official as Ibrahim Tolga Akgun, who was in Moscow last weekend for the European rhythmic gymnastics championship.

Akgun said the suspect had demanded the full amount of the money he had dropped and then snatched his wallet, Perfilova said.

Perfilova said the number of such scams had decreased in recent years, although foreigners should be wary if they see someone drop their wallet.

"The main thing is to not pick it up and not to enter into any discussions," she said. "There's an old Russian saying: The only free cheese is in a mousetrap."