BANGKOK, February 20 - RAPSI. Russian citizen Yulia Maximova, who has been arrested by Thai police alongside citizens of Nigeria and Mozambique, is suspected of participating in a cyber fraud resulting in the loss of $700,000, the investigations team working on the case told RIA Novosti on Friday.

"Maximova is suspected of claiming to be a high-ranking UN official's secretary while holding talks with the victim. There is also evidence that she fraudulently withdrew funds received in the result of the fraud from ATMs in Pattaya," a police officer said.

On Sunday, Maximova was arrested in a condominium in Pattaya together with the African citizens. All three have been charged with fraud after persuading a Laos citizen to transfer $700,000 to their accounts.

The police said the suspects started corresponding with the Laos citizen several weeks earlier, pretending to be an imaginary U.S. admiral who allegedly planned to retire, settle in Laos and marry her.

They wrote her that he had saved about $2 million after serving in Iraq and he would like to transfer the funds to her from a UN depositary.

After talking with the "bride" by e-mail and telephone for several weeks, he asked her to contact an imaginary UN employee, who said he would transfer the funds from the admiral's UN depositary if she sent him money. The Laos citizen realized that the gang had cheated her out of her money only after she had already transferred 21 million baths (about $700,000).