Preventive detention for a man suspected of “hello father, hello mother” fraud

A man suspected of committing a crime of qualified fraud via WhatsApp, using the expressions “hello father, hello mother”, was in preventive detention this Saturday, a source in the Judicial Police (PJ) told the Lusa agency.

The criminal investigation judge, who was present at the first judicial interrogation of the 41-year-old defendant, used the most serious coercive measure – preventive detention.

In a statement on Friday, the SP said that through Leiria’s Criminal Investigation Department, “a search warrant was executed at the house and a foreign national was arrested in the act for committing the crime of fraud.” “.

“Seven “modems” were seized, which connected 32 SIM cards to each device, that is, they simultaneously worked with 224 cards. This functionality allowed messages to be sent/received, meaning thousands of messages could be sent in a single day, with arguments known as “Hi Dad, Hello Mom,” PJ explained.

According to the joint venture, “the suspect interacted with third parties online, being able to carry out similar schemes in the country, as well as in other countries,” adding that “the investigation revealed massive use of cards, materializing in the fact that thousands of cards were seized, more seven thousand cards are unused and more than one thousand five hundred cards have already been used in criminal practices.”

In its statement, the SP said that “after receiving the complaint, it launched an investigation under the direction of the Leiria Public Prosecutor’s Office, based on the phenomenon known” by the expressions “hello father, hello mother”, fraud, which “increases the scale of the fraud.” , with casualties throughout the country, and also widespread in other European countries.”

“The victims, many of whom were elderly, believing that they were talking to their children and that they were experiencing financial difficulties and/or needed urgent payments, were immediately willing to make a transfer/payment, the value of which varied. but which in some cases amounted to thousands of euros,” the report said.

In the area of ​​the Department of Criminal Investigations of Leiria, “more than 200 reports of this type of fraud were recorded for a total amount of more than 100 thousand euros.”

The area covered by this department is 24 municipalities located in the districts of Leiria and Santarem.

“The investigative plan identified overlaps between investigations and noted a very pronounced use of non-repeated mobile phone numbers of national operators to practice this type of illegal activity,” which prompted “warnings and forced the use of special means of obtaining evidence,” PJ added.

The statement noted that “at that time there were many doubts as to how they operated and how they managed to make so many requests for money through the WhatsApp platform to later achieve their intentions of unjust and illicit enrichment,” but “Taking several steps” , the suspect was detained.

A PJ source told Lusa on Friday that “there are six cases of fraud identified in the present case” but has already identified “a much larger number of frauds that could have been committed by this suspect” detained in Lisbon.

“The investigation began in September, but the suspect’s activities began several months earlier,” said the same source, emphasizing that he, having no criminal record in the country, “has completely and absolutely devoted himself to criminal activities.”