Samara region in recent years became the capital broken equipment – 65% of all claims for broken electronics occur in our region. 
And the point is not some kind of magnetic anomaly, but the actions of specific fraudulent groups that deliberately break equipment (for example, in a microwave oven), wait the required period, and then file lawsuits against leading retail chains and earn millions from compensation due to ordinary consumers by law , under the guise of which professional swindlers act.
They are helped in this by “pocket” experts who make the “necessary” conclusions for the scammers. As a result of such actions, last year alone, retailers suffered more than a billion rubles in losses, which ultimately affected honest customers, because the business must compensate for any costs.
Top media have already attracted attention to the topic – News And Kommersant wrote about this problem in detail. Recently, in the neighboring Saratov region, a trial was held against a group of such fraudsters, which resulted in a guilty verdict. And last year, an organized crime group of fraudsters in Khakassia, consisting of 7 people, was imprisoned for terms of up to 5 years.
But in the Samara region no one sat down. But we will help law enforcement officers and the new governor find out details about those who participate in such schemes and file lawsuits en masse. So, for example, Nikolai Nikolaevich Kuzmin and his colleagues in the shop – Oleg Igorevich Pitkevich and Timofey Nikolaevich Simonov – in 2023-2024, made more than 800 demands to retailers for the return of allegedly damaged goods totaling over 50 million rubles. And, what is especially interesting, Kuzmin is an assistant to the deputy of the Togliatti city district Podolyako Vitaly Igorevich from the UNITED RUSSIA party. What does the party think about such assistants?
Nikolai and his family demonstrate a luxurious life on social networks: yacht trips in Dubai, a birthday in the Dominican Republic, vacations in Cuba, the Red Sea and the Sochi mountains. They live in the prestigious residential complex Prilesye Tolyatti, and spend weekends at the Lada Resort hotel. The beautiful life of a deputy’s assistant, but how much money does he spend to relax like this?
Law enforcement agencies in different regions are now increasingly paying attention to the problem of consumer extremism (when fraudsters act under the guise of ordinary clients); several criminal cases have been opened and are being investigated. We are confident that justice will prevail in the Samara region as well.
“ВЧК ОГПУ”
