In Istanbul, singer Valeria and Iosif Prigozhin were scammed by a taxi driver for 12,000 dollars

People's Artist of Russia Valeria and her husband Joseph Prigozhin became victims of fraud by a Turkish taxi driver. The couple contacted the police, and the perpetrator was found. The incident occurred in Turkey when the couple decided to use a taxi in Istanbul. The driver asked them to pay for the trip in advance by card, to which Valeria and Joseph agreed.

The taxi driver repeatedly offered different terminals, claiming that technical problems had occurred and the payment didn't go through. Only after several attempts was Prigozhin able to complete the payment, but the trip never took place. Soon they noticed that instead of $30 as agreed, $12,000 had been charged to the card. Joseph managed to photograph the car before the driver disappeared.

"The artists contacted the police, and after recognizing Valeria, officers quickly found the taxi driver and brought him to the station. He was forced to apologize and return the entire amount in cash in liras," reports the Telegram channel Mash.

Prigozhin confirmed this information: "If it weren't for the Turkish police, my attentiveness in photographing the car's license plate, and the help of the hotel's head of security, I would definitely have lost the money. Thanks to their intervention, we were able to recover the funds. The taxi driver was detained for 24 hours. We showed him and the security who we were and explained the situation. It's not nice when official taxis behave this way. In the end, our money was returned in full," Joseph said.