Bailiffs' blonde to sue over photo

MOSCOW - A Moscow hairdresser is suing bailiffs from the Russian region of Udmurtia after they found a picture of her on a social networking site and used it to lure unsuspecting debtors into meetings.

In a television news report last week, bailiffs in Udmurtia boasted of a new scheme. They had set up a fake online account of a young blonde woman, and sent flirty messages offering meetings to men who had defaulted on debt repayments. When the men arrived at the meeting, they were met by bailiffs demanding repayment.

But Yana Kulikova, 26, told the Gazeta newspaper she kept wondering what her husband would have said if he'd happened to log on to the site and found her picture saying she wanted to meet men. "He'd have never believed that it wasn't me."

- INDEPENDENT