{"id":25962,"date":"2026-09-22T09:24:52","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T03:39:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eng.dragonmedia.com.np\/?p=25962"},"modified":"2026-09-22T09:24:52","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T03:39:52","slug":"scammers-in-russia-use-retail-purchases-to-threaten-customers-with-criminal-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eng.dragonmedia.com.np\/?p=25962","title":{"rendered":"<strong>Scammers in Russia Use Retail Purchases to Threaten Customers with Criminal Charges<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Dragon Media News Desk<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Scammers in Russia have begun targeting customers of Auchan and Lemana Pro by falsely accusing them of financing the Ukrainian Armed Forces through purchases made at the retail chains.<\/p>\n<p>According to the Russian news agency TASS, Masharov, a member of Russia\u2019s Public Chamber, reported that fraudsters are impersonating law enforcement officers and contacting customers with claims that criminal proceedings have been initiated against them.<\/p>\n<p>The scammers allege that purchases at Auchan or Lemana Pro amount to financial support for the Ukrainian military. They then use the threat of criminal prosecution to pressure their targets into handing over money.<\/p>\n<p>The scheme has emerged following the transfer of assets belonging to the foreign companies into the temporary management of L.E.V. Management. Fraudsters appear to be exploiting confusion surrounding the companies\u2019 management arrangements to make their threats seem credible.<\/p>\n<p>The reported scheme does not establish that customers face criminal liability merely for shopping at either retailer. The allegations of criminal proceedings are part of the scammers\u2019 attempts to intimidate victims and obtain money.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fb-background-color\">\n\t\t\t  <div \n\t\t\t  \tclass = \"fb-comments\" \n\t\t\t  \tdata-href = \"https:\/\/eng.dragonmedia.com.np\/?p=25962\"\n\t\t\t  \tdata-numposts = \"10\"\n\t\t\t  \tdata-lazy = \"true\"\n\t\t\t\tdata-colorscheme = \"light\"\n\t\t\t\tdata-order-by = \"time\"\n\t\t\t\tdata-mobile=true>\n\t\t\t  <\/div><\/div>\n\t\t  <style>\n\t\t    .fb-background-color {\n\t\t\t\tbackground: #ffffff !important;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t.fb_iframe_widget_fluid_desktop iframe {\n\t\t\t    width: 100% !important;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t  <\/style>\n\t\t  ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dragon Media News Desk Scammers in Russia have begun targeting customers of Auchan and Lemana Pro by falsely accusing them of financing the Ukrainian Armed Forces through purchases made at the retail chains. According to the Russian news agency TASS, Masharov, a member of Russia\u2019s Public Chamber, reported that fraudsters are impersonating law enforcement officers &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":25963,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[164,160],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Scammers in Russia Use Retail Purchases to Threaten Customers with Criminal Charges - Dragon Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Scammers in Russia have begun targeting customers of Auchan and Lemana Pro by falsely accusing them of financing the Ukrainian Armed Forces.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/eng.dragonmedia.com.np\/?p=25962\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Scammers in Russia Use Retail Purchases to Threaten Customers with Criminal Charges - Dragon Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Scammers in Russia have begun targeting customers of Auchan and Lemana Pro by falsely accusing them of financing the Ukrainian Armed Forces.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/eng.dragonmedia.com.np\/?p=25962\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Dragon Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/profile.php?id=61560346806474\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-09-22T03:39:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/eng.dragonmedia.com.np\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/auchan.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"687\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"406\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dragon Media\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dragon Media\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/eng.dragonmedia.com.np\\\/?p=25962#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/eng.dragonmedia.com.np\\\/?p=25962\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Dragon Media\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/eng.dragonmedia.com.np\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/cbbc40ba051fb45aeb6f5846f090f5eb\"},\"headline\":\"Scammers in Russia Use Retail Purchases to Threaten Customers with Criminal Charges\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-09-22T03:39:52+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/eng.dragonmedia.com.np\\\/?p=25962\"},\"wordCount\":189,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/eng.dragonmedia.com.np\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/eng.dragonmedia.com.np\\\/?p=25962#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/eng.dragonmedia.com.np\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/09\\\/auchan.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Asia\",\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/eng.dragonmedia.com.np\\\/?p=25962#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/eng.dragonmedia.com.np\\\/?p=25962\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/eng.dragonmedia.com.np\\\/?p=25962\",\"name\":\"Scammers in Russia Use Retail Purchases to Threaten Customers with Criminal Charges - 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