Hours after being exposed by journalists on Wednesday, swindlers behind a massive call center scam in Tbilisi, Georgia, deleted their social media profiles, where they had flaunted luxury purchases and lavish vacations.
The Tbilisi call center—employing around 85 people and generating $35.3 million from over 6,100 victims worldwide—was among several operations uncovered in the Scam Empire investigation by OCCRP, SVT, and 30 other media partners.
Based on 1.9 terabytes of leaked data obtained by SVT, reporters identified two networks of call centers operating from Israel, Eastern Europe, and Georgia. Their employees convinced 32,000 people globally to make fraudulent “investments” totaling at least $275 million.
In Tbilisi, call center agents openly referred to themselves as “scammers” (or skameri in Georgian), using fake identities, forged documents, and deceptive advertising to swindle victims out of their savings.
OCCRP and its partners in Georgia—Studio Monitori, iFact, and GMC—identified some of them by matching their internal chat messages from the leak with their social media posts.
Now that their real identities have been exposed, several agents have taken steps to erase their digital footprints, removing content from Facebook and Instagram or deleting their accounts entirely.
Among them are sisters Mariam and Veriko Charchian, 26 and 22, who operated under the aliases “Mary Roberts” and “Veronika Nowak.” Both were top performers at the Tbilisi call center.
One of their victims, Canadian factory worker Marcel Deschamps, was duped by “Roberts,” who posed as a professional crypto expert and convinced him to invest large sums in fake digital assets—never allowing him to withdraw his money. “Nowak” had previously identified Marcel as a promising target. When he realized he had been scammed, “Roberts” mocked him, calling him “f***ing dumb” and claiming her alias would never be exposed.
The Charchian sisters’ social media profiles suggest they lived modestly until about two years ago when they began showcasing luxury jewelry, designer clothing, and a jet-setting lifestyle. Their accounts have since been wiped clean.
“They’re living a life of luxury,” said Marcel, after seeing social media posts of the sisters traveling the world. “And not sparing anything… On my money.”
Some of the Tbilisi scammers continued targeting victims as recently as last month. “Mary Roberts” extracted $31,000 from elderly victims in early February, records show, while her colleague “Alex Davis” convinced a 78-year-old Canadian man to send over $50,000.
Neither Mariam nor Veriko Charchian responded to detailed requests for comment on their involvement in the call center or their sudden influx of wealth.
Other Tbilisi call center employees have also erased their social media presence, including agents “Alex Davis,” “Noah Sharples,” and “Marina Novikova”—real names Davit Kvachantiradze, Tornike Gogsadze, and Anjelika Chkapelia. The financial manager, Nika Basaria (alias “Neal Cassidy”), and IT department employee Zviad Urushadze (alias “Luke Wade”) have also disappeared from social media.
