I think they meant this part:

Victims recount being put into a trance state by strangers who convince them to hand over valuables in return for help ‘to turn their fate around’

But the format of that site is really hard to parse and the “article” is really thin. It’s barely more than a headline. At any rate, I think they’re trying to imply the thieves are using hypnosis to rob people which is uh… creative I suppose.