A man detained in an operation to dismantle a structure that created thousands of “hello father, hello mother” computer scams is barred from leaving the country and subject to periodic submissions to the PSP, a judicial source said on Wednesday.
The accused was arrested on Monday by the Judicial Police (PJ) and taken to the Leiria Criminal Court on Tuesday, but the judicial interrogation was interrupted due to an overtime strike by the judiciary, a Lusa source at the same agency said.
The interrogation ended this Wednesday when the criminal judge ordered the accused, as a coercive measure, to be prohibited from leaving the country, surrender his passport and periodically appear once a week at the Public Security Police Station (PSP).
On Tuesday, the joint venture announced that it had dismantled the structure that created thousands of “hi dad, hello mom” computer scams and arrested a person suspected of crimes of qualified fraud, criminal enterprise and money laundering.
In a statement, the SP explained that following a complaint received in January, the Department of Criminal Investigations (DIC) of Leiria took steps that allowed it to “identify matches and address seven more requests, noting the massive use of non-duplicate mobile phone numbers, starting with national operators for committing this kind of offenses, which caused alarm and forced the use of special means of obtaining evidence.”
According to the SP, in addition to the detainee, the accused are also a 38-year-old foreign citizen, his wife and daughter.
“During the operation, the PS seized 49 “modems”, which had 32 SIM cards attached to each device, which meant that 1,568 cards were working simultaneously,” the PS said, noting that “this capacity initially allowed for the creation of thousands of accounts.” mainly on WhatsApp, as well as sending/receiving about thousands of messages per day through “hi dad, hi mom” scams and other digital scams.”
The joint venture clarified that “there is a repeating pattern with the massive use of thousands of cards, as evidenced by the seizure of 32 thousand cards already used in criminal practices.”
“Interactions with third parties online were also identified, with evidence collected from suspects residing in one of the Central European countries,” the SP said, adding that “during the investigation, the location where the IT and data structure was installed . means of communication, in the house of the detainee.”
The joint venture believes that this operation will “stop thousands of computer scams domestically and internationally.”
On the same day, at a press conference at the headquarters of the joint venture in Lisbon, the director of the DIC of Leiria, Avelino Lima, said that the first complaint was a fraud of almost 500 euros, but another fraud related to the investigation amounted to 10 euros. one thousand euros.
“There are already seven investigations attached to this investigation and we are talking about €40,000 worth of injuries to these victims. Almost two dozen more investigations have already been identified in the prosecutor’s office itself. All this work will now be complemented by information from others. Then we will be able to have a more specific measurement and the number of frauds will be very high,” emphasized Avelino Lima.
According to Avelino Lima, “the complexity of these investigations is high because it does not only concern Portugal.”
“We are talking about organized, complex crime on a global scale,” explained Avelino Lima, who also warned of the importance of victims communicating more quickly with authorities.
The director of the DIC of Leiria also warned the population to be more attentive to the necessary precautions when interacting with strangers in the digital environment.
According to a representative of the prosecutor’s office, the suspect had been in the country since September and received income from this activity.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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