"Fortune-tellers" profited from the grief of families of fallen servicemen: scammers will be tried in Kyiv

In Kyiv, four members of a criminal group will stand trial who, according to law enforcement, posed as magicians, psychics and “fortune-tellers” and swindled money from people.

This was reported on June 12, 2026, by the Cyber Police Department of the National Police of Ukraine.

Among the victims in the case are the families of deceased Ukrainian servicemen. According to the investigation, the defendants profited from human grief and psychological vulnerability.

Law enforcement established that the fraudsters masked their activities as esotericism, fortune-telling and “magical assistance”. They communicated with victims through thematic websites, telephone calls and messengers.

Posing as psychics, the defendants used psychological pressure, threatened people with “curses” and persuaded them to pay for ever more expensive “services”.

To pay the fraudsters, some victims gave up their last savings and even took out loans.

The police note that it was particularly cynical that pressure was also applied to the relatives of deceased Ukrainian defenders — people who were grieving and in an extremely vulnerable state.

According to the investigation, family clans of the organizer of such a “business” — a 50-year-old resident of the Cherkasy region — were involved in the scheme.

The group’s activity was uncovered in March 2026 by Kyiv cyber police together with investigators from the Darnytsia Department of the capital’s police under the procedural supervision of the Darnytsia District Prosecutor’s Office.

Investigators have now completed the pre-trial investigation regarding four defendants under Part 5 Article 190 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine — fraud committed in particularly large amounts or by an organized group.

The indictment, together with the materials of the criminal proceedings, has already been sent to the court.

The article’s sanction provides for up to 12 years of imprisonment with confiscation of property.

Earlier we wrote:

• Scammers manipulate families of captives and missing persons: Coordination Headquarters warned about new schemes
• «Pay money or provide intimate photos»: how Russia pressures families of Ukrainian captives
• Scammers extorted money from relatives of servicemen under the guise of «help»
• In the Mykolaiv region scammers duped people out of hundreds of thousands of hryvnias
• Cyberpolice exposed a network of online scammers who operated under the guise of occult services