They lived among high-powered cars, luxury items, jewels and watches but pocketed the citizen’s income: perpetrators of computer scams unmasked by the police

UDINE. The State Police identified, following a complex investigation conducted by the Postal Police Department for Liguria, in collaboration with those for Tuscany, Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia, coordinated nationally by the Postal and Police Service communications and under the direction of the Public Prosecutor’s Office at the Court of La Spezia, eleven people, earners of citizenship income but with a “nabob” standard of living, suspected of being part of a criminal association aimed at carrying out computer scams .

In fact, the investigators of the Postal Police had not escaped the frenetic activity carried out by a couple who dealt with withdrawing, at the counters of credit institutions in the upper Tuscany, what turned out to be the proceeds of the criminal activity of a more articulated organization.

The survey made it possible to identify the accomplices and to define the tasks carried out by each of the members of the gang residing in Tuscany, Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia.

In particular, the “telephone operators” took care of hooking up the victims directly from their homes, located in Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia. In fact, after selecting the sales announcements present on the various online trading platforms, they contacted the sellers, pretending to be strongly interested in buying the goods and eager to make the payment as soon as possible.

By relying on haste, the unsuspecting victim was convinced to go to an ATM to receive the agreed sum directly on their card.

Then, exploiting the imperfect knowledge of the victims’ banking tools, the scammer provided them with a whole series of instructions and codes, thanks to which, instead of receiving payment on their account, the unfortunates were induced to top up a payment card in the availability. of the criminal association. In numerous cases, the victim was even induced to carry out numerous recharges, before realizing that he had fallen into a trap.

The complex investigations revealed that the link between the different cells is represented by strong parental ties, which made it particularly difficult to reconstruct the roles within the organization.

Precisely this solid relationship of trust had generated a sort of network that dealt with the entire management of fraudulent operations, from the commission of the scams to the subsequent monetization, the so-called cash-out at the reference ATM located in Tuscany.

To guarantee anonymity and thus evade the investigative activity, the members of the organization used to resort to systems of “anonymization” of conversations or encrypted applications such as Telegram and Icq.

The prestigious residences subject to searches were protected by passive protection systems, such as walls and fences, while the internal and external perimeter was monitored by closed-circuit cameras and sophisticated electronic protection systems. In the availability of the suspects, large cars, luxury items, jewels and watches.

At the moment it is estimated that the proceeds of the criminal organization’s activity could amount to several million euros.