The judicial police believe that they have caught one of the links in the chain of a large international network of scams “Hello, Mom, Hello, Dad” with the arrest of a 41-year-old foreign man who was found to have 224 active SIM cards (for mobile communications), connected to seven “modems”, which allowed him to send thousands of messages a day via WhatsApp, using a scam technique with messages posing as a member of the victim’s family in order to “withdraw” money, with supposed “innocent” requests for help.
In the area of Leiria PJ, where the investigation began, there are more than 200 reports of this fraud amounting to more than 100,000 euros. There are still hundreds of cases to be reviewed as the next step in the investigation. In addition to the 224 active cards, PJ also found about 1,500 discarded cards and another seven thousand new ones, still unused.
“I draw attention to an aspect that is important for society,” Avelino Lima, director of the Leiria police, said on Friday, “namely the ease with which people dedicated to this type of crime obtain this huge number of cards [SIM]without any registration, without any control.”
“Someone must also start taking into account these aspects that we, as a state, as a country, must take into account,” he emphasized. This man had no predecessors in Portugal.
INTERNATIONAL SCHEME
In recent years, “Hello Mom, Hello Dad” scams have been detected around the world. They tell victims that they are talking to their son, claim that their cell phone is broken (for example), and convince victims to transfer money.
THE INVESTIGATION BEGAN IN SEPTEMBER
Leiria PJ, which began the investigation in September, is now analyzing SIM cards found in the suspect’s home in search of new victims of the scheme, which could take the investigation to a global scale.
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Author: Jose Durao
Source: CM Jornal
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