Scam calls from Ukraine drain millions of sexes

Joint work by Czech and Ukrainian detectives resulted in the arrest of several suspects in both countries.

As Bravo discovered, the fraudsters operated from March 2021 until last November, a time when the country was in the midst of a war and the city of Dnipro was hit several times by Russian missiles.

Among the wounded were well-known Czech figures. For example, it is about the family of a former high official in the government.

“I can confirm that on April 12, ten natural persons were criminally charged in this matter. From the investigation and investigation conducted so far, their actions have been able to fulfill the true essence of the crime of fraud and participation in an organized criminal group, Ales Simbala, a spokesman for the Prague City Prosecutor’s Office, told Brava on Friday. .

All those charged face up to ten years in prison.

A spokeswoman for prosecutors said victims were contacted by fictitious bankers saying their accounts had been hacked and that they needed to transfer their money to other supposedly secure accounts.

“So-called callers contact victims with the pretense that they are bank employees and falsely inform them that their accounts have been hacked by fraudsters and that they should immediately transfer money to another, secure account or deposit it at special Bitcoin ATMs.” A source involved in investigating the case said.

According to him, the credibility of the instructions was enhanced by the fact that the victims were called by a person posing as a police officer and confirmed that the money in their account was indeed at risk.

“The accused used a method known as spoofing to make fraudulent calls, which allows the caller’s phone number to appear as the phone number of the real user, in this case the bank and the police. Additionally, to support their legend, they communicated through the WhatsApp application various documents with a photo of their fictitious employee card and the bank’s logo. sent to those who have,” the source added.

“There must have been 300 partial assaults on the part of the accused, so the damage caused exceeded 65 million crowns. However, the number of victims may increase and the damage may increase. In total, more than 490 cases have been investigated by the police and the damage is estimated to be more than one hundred million,” Simbala added.

According to him, it was the cross-border element that made solving the case so difficult.

Simphala did not want to comment further on the matter. “As the preliminary proceedings are not open to the public, no further details can be released,” the spokesperson explained. He only confirmed that the supervising public prosecutor had submitted a proposal to remand the four suspects.

According to the investigation of the Ukrainian police, all proceeds from criminal activities went to the main organizer Dmytro K. (32) ended up in hands, he then redistributed the money among the subordinates. Czech callers arrived with hundreds of thousands of crowns. Investigators noted that the group was characterized by strict adherence to rules, including complete secrecy of operations and a clear hierarchy.

Detectives discovered that Dmytro K. had two close associates, a Czech Tomasliko and a Ukrainian, who recruited people from the Czech Republic to the call centers and ensured their operation.

“They were frontline agents within the criminal structure, practically superior to ordinary callers, who controlled and advised them on how to successfully deal with the person on the other end of the line, even during the phone call.” The accused said.