A court in Kazakhstan's capital has sentenced an entrepreneur who, under the guise of selling smoked horse meat at a reduced price, defrauded 31 people, infohub.kz reports.
According to the Astana prosecutor's office, the man took prepayments from customers via Instagram and WhatsApp while never intending to fulfill his delivery obligations.
To mislead buyers, he used previously completed orders and positive reviews, and spent the money he received on personal needs.
The criminal actions caused material damage to 31 victims totaling more than 1.7 million tenge, the supervisory authority said.
Taking into account full compensation of the damage, the court sentenced him to two years and eight months of restricted freedom with probation monitoring. The verdict has not yet entered into legal force.
"The capital's prosecutor's office urges citizens to exercise caution when making purchases through social media and messaging apps and not to transfer money as prepayment to unverified sellers," the supervisory authority said.