
Police are searching for a woman accused of posing as a shaman and swindling victims out of hundreds of thousands of euros.
A “treasure” worth around six million euros, including cash and gold, has reportedly been seized during police searches in Vienna and Lower Austria, along with occult objects believed to have been used in séances.
The 44-year-old, known as Mariana M. but who went by the name Amela, is alleged to have approached a 56-year-old woman on the street in Vienna’s 19th district, claiming to have supernatural powers. She is said to have convinced the victim that a curse had been placed on her and demanded large sums of money to lift it, warning that she was otherwise doomed to die.
Authorities say the fraud took place in both Vienna and the nearby town of Baden, with total losses running into the high six figures. Mariana M. was identified following the release of a composite sketch, but she remains at large.