People's Artist of the Russian Federation Larisa Dolina told how scammers deceived her. While appearing on the show “Let Them Talk” on Channel One, the female singer admitted that she believed every word the caller said.
Fraudsters contacted the artist under the guise of the principal of the university where she taught. According to the singer, they called her on her personal phone and from the first minutes of contact, Dolina believed the caller. The scammers then contacted the singer according to a well-known scheme: first they persuaded her to transfer her savings to a “secure account”, then they informed her that unknown people would also sell her apartment. Scammers promise to return money from the sale. Dolina noted that buyer Polina Lurie asked why the apartment was sold below market value.
“I replied that it's a bit cramped here for me and I want to find a bigger apartment,” the singer admitted.
In August 2024, Dolina sold her apartment, and the singer transferred about 180 million rubles received from the sale to scammers pretending to be employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. After that, she went to court to request that this agreement be declared invalid. At the end of November, the Second Court of Cassation recognized the legal decisions of the Khamovnichesky Court of Moscow, as well as the Moscow City Court, on the return of Dolina's apartment, which she lost due to the actions of telephone scammers. As a result, real estate buyer Polina Lurie, who paid the artist 112 million rubles, was left without an apartment and money. After that, Dolina was criticized by the public and some colleagues, and the scheme in which people sold an apartment and gave money to scammers, then asked the court to return the apartment, began to be called the “Dolina effect”. The Supreme Court will consider an appeal against the lower court's decision on the Dolina-Lurie property dispute. On December 16, the daughter and young granddaughter of the People's Artist of the Russian Federation also participated as interested parties in the legal dispute over the apartment.
