A gang of online scammers has been uncovered. How its participants acted

The Department of Public Security of the Athens Sub-Directorate of Security dismantled a gang whose members were engaged in online fraud, and the total amount of property they stole exceeded 154,000 euros.

A case was opened against 2 leading members for creating and leading a criminal organization, whose members jointly and repeatedly committed fraud through illegal access to electronic banking data, forgery, money laundering from criminal activities, as well as the acceptance and disposal of criminal products with a total loss of more than 120,000 euros.

The case also names 66 people who acted as “money mules” and are accused of providing assets to facilitate the goals of the criminal organization.

As it turned out during the police investigation, during which information was used, as well as technical and digital research, the organization’s actions are located in chronological order from March 2023, and its members acted according to a certain methodology. In particular, members of the criminal organization committed fraud using two different modalities:

• 1st method – virtual advertising on social networks:
  • they placed fictitious advertisements for the sale of cars and agricultural machinery at very low and tempting prices, and thus the victims were passive, since they themselves communicated with the criminals,
  • subsequently, in order to “close” the deal, the criminals asked for and received an advance payment under the pretext that the car would not be available to another potential buyer;
  • Having extracted as much money as possible from the victims, they cut off all communication so that their traces would disappear.
• 2nd method – recipients of compensation and benefits:
  • scammers stalked potential victims through online platforms and pretended to be employees of government agencies, posing as senders of government subsidies or refunds,
  • exploited the victims' ignorance of banking operations and instructed them to transfer funds to the “business” accounts of third parties already “recruited” by members of the organization,
  • gained access to the bank account itself, thereby causing even greater financial harm to the victims.

As noted in the ad, in both cases, they transferred money to the bank accounts of people they had recruited as money mules, for a fee of 300-500 euros, depending on the bank that served them each time.

According to ELAS, a characteristic feature of their methods of operation was that the members of the criminal organization showed great skill, ingenuity and amazing success in avoiding mistakes that could lead to their discovery. They compiled lists and gathered information about targets, often contacting them some time before the scam to enrich their information in order to be convincing in the final message.

To stop their activities, a coordinated police operation was carried out at the homes of members of the organization on Saturday morning (15/06), during which one of the leading members, as well as another person who played the role of a “money mule”, was identified and arrested for violating drug legislation. During the searches, the following items were discovered and seized:

• 3 cars,
• 7,710 euros,
• 9 mobile phones,
• many bank cards,
• 3 game consoles,
• laptop and smart watch,
• many documents (tax, banking, etc.)
• 2 boxes containing 60 drug tablets.

The investigation has so far revealed 12 cases of fraud, and the amount of illegal profits exceeded 154,000 euros. Those arrested were taken to the competent department of the prosecutor's office.

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