Phone scam empire: how Georgian agents robbed victims worldwide

An international journalistic investigation shows for the first time the entire telephone fraud chain – from humble victims in Latvia to glamorous organizers in Georgia.

This is discussed in the investigation on rebaltica.lv

From the outside, it is an ordinary five-story building in Teika, Riga. It becomes special only because the building houses four people who wired money to telephone fraudsters in Georgia.

The door opens to a knock from an old man. Lajmon doesn’t have to explain for long why the journalists are standing on the doorstep. He does not demand credentials or other documents. When asked if he counted money abroad, he admits "happened" and invites the strangers in. At the end of the hallway, the blue light of the TV shines. Yellowed wallpaper, armored linoleum, and furniture silently speak of a long service life. Holding onto the wall, Lajmon’s wife, 81-year-old Sandra, limps slowly toward us.

Lajmon treats himself to candies and chats about everything – except the reason we came. Sandra silently sifts through stacks of papers in a cupboard. After some time, she lays out copies of payments on the table, or the only ones left from her life savings.

"How much did you send them?" I asked. Lajmon hesitantly replies, "Somewhere between 10-15 thousand."

The truth, which they either did not want to see or did not know, is harsher. Their own documents and those we had allowed us to calculate that Lajmon and Sandra lost 51,000 euros in one year in a fraud scheme. 

For the first time – all the insides

If you think you have heard countless stories about phone fraudsters, this one is different in that it shows the entire fraud chain – from victims to executors and organizers.

This became possible because the Swedish public television SVT transferred data from three call centers in Tbilisi, Georgia, to the international investigative journalism network OCCRP, which includes the rebaltica.lv editorial team. A whistleblower leaked over a million audio recordings of telephone conversations with the victims, documents, and work correspondence.

"Fraud Empire" is the joint effort of more than 30 global media outlets. Journalists have identified at least 6,179 victims in different countries of the world.

The pensioner couple is one of more than 40 Latvians who sent money to these Georgian phone fraudsters. The editorial team called and reviewed dozens of addresses in Riga, Vinyani, Malpilsis, Rezekne, Daugavpils, Bauska. Some people did not respond to the conversation. Those who agreed said very similar things. The "invested" amounts ranged from several hundred to several thousand. It affected both the young and the elderly.

“The online fraud industry generates about 500 billion dollars annually,” former Interpol Secretary General Jürgen Stock told reporters. “According to our estimates, cybercrime now generates as much profit as international drug trafficking."

What’s on the other side?

In this scheme, at least 85 people deceive the victims. They operate from three offices in Tbilisi.

Callers refer to themselves as "agents."

These are young Georgians with higher education who are fluent in several languages. They work in the office, communicate with colleagues, discuss holidays, sometimes complain about long workdays and demanding management. But everything is outweighed by the salary. The most skilled can earn up to $20,000 per month. Their success is closely monitored by the management. The main criterion of professionalism – is how well you lie. If you do it insufficiently aggressively, you will get reprimanded.

This industry is serviced by marketing firms and payment companies. It has introduced practices of large corporations – leaderboards, performance ratings, even bonuses. Particularly successful scams can include not only an iPhone but also a Rolex watch and a BMW car.

When a victim sends money, they congratulate each other in the general chat with champagne images. Also popular is a GIF or a moving picture from the movie "The Wolf of Wall Street" in which Leonardo DiCaprio applauds. 

The lifestyle of the most successful agents is reminiscent of the lifestyle of the hero of this film. They travel on expensive trips, buy exquisite designer jewelry and clothes. One of the most successful agents arrived at his wedding in Georgia by helicopter (more about the luxurious lifestyle of the fraudsters read the OCCRP article). 

Fraudsters go out for lunch together, celebrate success and openly express disdain for their victims. 

Phone fraudsters are divided into departments – German, English, Spanish, and Russian, depending on the language used in the fraud. The instruction includes a strict rule not to call each other by name, only by pseudonyms: Anthony Adams, Carl Green, and others. The pseudonyms were adapted to the language used in the anti-fraud department. But sometimes they share stories about their holidays and families in their internal correspondence. They are friends with real profiles on social networks.

Who deceived Riga’s pensioners?

Gathering all the clues together, journalists also identified one of the people who deceived the couple of Riga pensioners.

His name is David Isoyan, but in his work, he goes by Alexander Lomachenko. He is 25 years old. 

Isoyan works in the "Russian department", meaning he talks to people in Russian. This department defrauded $4.5 million from May 2022 to March 2024.

 

Internal records show that in spring 2023, Isoyan earned $3,000-$4,000 a month. Salary depends on the amount defrauded. At that time, it was 30 thousand.

On one of Isoyan’s computer screenshots, it can be seen how he stays late at work. Simultaneously with the calls, he watches matches on YouTube.

The man did not respond to journalists’ questions.

How did they get there?

— Alexander! (..) Please call me. I have already paid you everything. Besides, I am completely drowning in debt. Save me! I am waiting for your call; your phone tells me that the number does not exist."

This is one of Sandra’s last letters to "Alexander". She sent it in March 2023. It all started the previous year.

Sandra was still working as a storeroom keeper in a state institution. During the day, she was not in a hurry and spent a lot of time at the computer. "I went through ’Delphi’, saw that there is a pattern – a person paid, then received a pile of money. I mean, well, is it not good, right?

She supposedly paid 50 euros. Soon, calls came with allegedly good news that investments in oil and gas are rapidly growing – they already make 300 euros. It sounded good enough for Sandra to continue "investing".

The main hook used by fraudsters is telling and showing how investments are increasing. "Recently, when they called here, they were already at 110 thousand. If I paid a thousand euros, that amount would already be on my account that evening. Understand, there is no money to count. Maybe you will borrow again, but is it needed?" – said the pensioner thoughtfully. From the conversations, it is clear that Sandra sometimes still doubts whether she was truly deceived. 

Where does advertising come from?

They are a separate business that fraudsters often outsource as a service. Companies created specifically for this advertise on social networks telling us how someone has successfully invested and earned. If you want the same, leave your contacts. To make it credible, well-known people are featured in the photographs, like businessman Elon Musk or a more recognized regional figure. The contact details entered on the sites are instantly supplied to call centers by intermediaries. From the moment of entering a phone number, only a couple of minutes might pass before a call is made.

The advertising business is profitable. OCCRP investigated that one company that sold data to phone fraudsters earned $850,000 in nine months in 2023.

Representatives of the "industry" even hold conferences where they openly share how to bypass advertising rules in different countries and platforms, how to hook people more successfully, and other professional skills.

Several thousand per day

Journalists have copies of the money transfers. Sandra sent the first thousand to fraudsters on July 23, 2022. The next one – just five days later. "It wasn’t that often initially. After this, it was almost that day," she recalls. 

In November, the pensioners credited the fraudsters with 23,000 euros through 24 payments.

On some days, they even transferred several times. First, go to the Latvian post, send a thousand, later to E-lats at the branch, the same.

In most cases, these were private individuals in Ukraine (in previous investigations, Ukraine appeared as an important hub for phone fraud – ed.). 

Pensioners received instructions on how to send – via Western Union or MoneyGram (E-lats in offices) – by email. There was also information about the recipient – name, surname, phone number, date of birth, and occupation.

Journalists failed to find these individuals and verify their connection to the fraudsters. Such schemes often use money mules – persons through whom criminal groups and launder money. Sometimes this happens through account compromise. Therefore, the editorial board concealed information that would allow identifying them. Photo: Screenshot from Sandra’s email

In the purpose of sending, Sandra usually wrote "material assistance". Considered as if to friends, adds Lajmon: “At the post office, they asked how we know these people. I was after Chornobyl, I said we have been friends since then.”

This legend with elements of truth was helped to invent by fraudsters.

Journalists questioned a representative of "Latvijas Pasts" about the incident but did not receive substantive answers since the company could not talk about internal safeguards. E-lats did not respond to questions. 

"At first, it seemed fine, but then, when I asked to return the money from my investments, various excuses start," says the pensioner.

"Then there is customs, then some papers, then nowhere to go, you know, it was just all nonsense," Lajmonis recalls. Each time they believed and, in hope of receiving the promised money immediately, sent more.

At one point, the fraudsters said that the banks would not allow transfers, so they would take the money back in cash. After some time, a call came saying that they were detained at the border, it was necessary to transfer again to pay customs officers.

"The problem is that I have no more money. I don’t understand why you can’t transfer the money? After this, I will send you as much as you want.

"Please understand me correctly, I am not trying to deceive an old man.

"So many people have already tried to cheat me.

— Please, don’t compare me to anyone else. Please. People are different."

This is an excerpt from a phone conversation between one woman and a fraudster. In the audio recordings, you can hear Sandra constantly expressing suspicions. But the fraudsters always reassure the woman that everything is in order. And she sends the money again.

"They have studied psychology, they know how to talk, they know how to persuade and everything," says Lajmonis. "He senses that the person begins to believe, and then he can be bored, and so instills that you are ready to give him everything. You know, it’s like you really have to fix everything."

Both say the subscribers were polite. This is evidenced by the records of conversations that fraudsters made so that management could assess the quality of work.

At the beginning, they always ask about health. Find out how you feel. On another occasion, she compliments that today the pensioner is much more lively, listens to her troubles with doctors, and only then gets down to business.

But masks tend to fall. For example, in one call, the fraudster asks Sandra to find the AnyDesk number (a program used for remote connection to another’s computer) on her computer. The woman can’t do this, so he starts responding aggressively. 

-Dictate the AnyDesk number!

— I don’t see any numbers!

— Then put on glasses!

-What?

— Put on glasses, baby!

At first, Sandra counted the money, then her husband, but at some point, their neighbors appear as payers. That’s why it seems there were four victims of fraudsters at this address, although it was just a couple of pensioners. "We were no longer allowed to send, then we had to look for other people," says Lajmon. Government employees may have suspected something was wrong and refused money transfers. Around this time, Lajmon also began to realize he might have fallen into the clutches of scammers.

It doesn’t end with neighbors. "There was already one who refused. Another had no order in the documents; another did not want to go," Sandra says. "After this, there were those whom I caught on the street and asked."

For a small fee, strangers transferred cash to the fraudsters from her. 

In the end, the couple lost 51,000 euros. It’s both lifelong savings and money borrowed from relatives and acquaintances.

"What is there to count, that money is lost," says Lajmonis, having learned the real amount of loss from journalists. He does not want to talk much about it because "it can already deteriorate in the head". Sandra adds that stress has deeply undermined health. 

Who Owns the Call Centers?

Like the scammers themselves, the company managing the call centers is well-hidden in Tbilisi. There is no information about A.K. Group online. Also, there are no indications near the main office on Kavtaradze Street in Tbilisi. The premises are rented by companies whose appointed directors exist only on paper.  

Officially, the owner of A.K. Group is 36-year-old Meri Shotadze. She leads the team and also works with Russian-speaking victims. In internal chats, Shotadze’s profile has a crown in the photo.  

Shotadze reports to a man whose name does not appear in official documents. This is 33-year-old Akaki Kevkhishvili. He also seems to have lent his initials to the company’s name – A.K. Group. 

From the correspondence, it is clear that Kevkhishvili makes decisions about salaries and promotions for employees. The agents call him Boss. He is also the one who transfers money from the A.K. Group accounts. The Boss has a private bodyguard hired by the company, and he drives a new Range Rover worth 140,000 dollars.

 

However, the reality is different. Journalists managed to count from leaked documents that from May 2022 to February 2025, Tbilisi call centers earned at least 35.3 million dollars.

Neither Shotadze nor Kevkhishvili responded to journalists’ questions.

Will Laimon and Sandra Get Their Money Back?

While Georgian scammers live a luxurious life, a pair of Latvian pensioners still hope that their conscience will awaken. They seem to know they were deceived, but sometimes they think – what if? 

They don’t go to the police. "It’s not worth wasting time. I don’t believe I can help," explains Laimon. Besides, they were afraid, as the scammers said that if they complained, they might have to regret it. "They know where we live, we are both old, anything can happen."

Oleg Filatov, a representative of the State Police responsible for cybercrime investigations, calls to trust the law enforcers. In a conversation with the editorial office, he admits that catching foreign phone scammers is difficult but not impossible. 

As a good example, Filatov cites two cases last year when it was possible to stop call centers in Ukraine. Some victims from Latvia also got their money back.

 

Meanwhile, the scammers continue to celebrate. A.K. Group welcomed the year 2025 with a luxurious ball organized by Georgian celebrities. The festivities were accompanied by cabaret performances and a huge cake with the company’s name. 

"Empire of Fraud" is a joint effort of more than 30 global media outlets. The investigation is based on files handed over by a whistleblower to Swedish Public Television (SVT). The work was coordinated by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).

Emma Davis