Hypnosis robbery has bedazzled Russian police. According to Moscow Times, the Police in Smolensk, Russia, are on the lookout for a hypnotist who convinced a bank teller to hand over 1 million rubles ($30,000).

A spokeswoman for the police department in the Smolensk area of Russia said the hypnotic robbery began when a "strange visitor" told a bank teller that he was the director of a shopping center and wanted information on taking out a loan.

Interfax reported that the strange hypnotic visitor didn't show any papers and didn't ask for a specific amount of money, whatever was in the cash register would apparently do. The entranced teller emptied the cash register and handed it over to the hypnotic stranger. There was 980,000 rubles in the cash register at the time.

The Smolensk police spokeswoman said surveillance cameras caught the hypnosis robbery. Video of the hypnotic crime shows that the visitor was only in the bank for three minutes. He walked in calmly, collected his million rubles and left just as calmly.

The bank teller later said that she had been hypnotized. She called the management of the shopping center where her hypnotic client said he worked. When the management said they didn't get any money, she called the police to report robbery by hypnosis.

Elena Beloff, an NGH-certified consulting NYC hypnotist, disagrees with the conclusions and is concerned that such stories, which pop up every now and then in Russia, Asia and a include a notorious case in Italy, can erode the public's faith in hypnotherapy. She said "Let's be honest, this brief article is a form of hypnosis itself. The headline itself is worded to pull your attention. And once again a misleading story like that will perpetuate a mystery around hypnosis."

Beloff doesn't believe and offers an alternative version, "The teller could had been involved in this operation and simply played a victim saying that she was hypnotized. The second thing that could have happened is that she is not that smart and the man knew this all along. Maybe she is slow, just started working at the bank. This man could have been talking to her like a true socio path would, charming, confusing, maybe even handing some papers and having her give them back to her, so there is no record of anything. So, really what he did many could do, just no one really wants to do dangerous and unethical things by misleading confused and not so bright people. Let's be clear he didn't hypnotize her, he could have taken advantage of a stupid person."

By Tony Sokol, follow me on Twitter