Seven people suspected of committing computer fraud and money laundering, among other crimes, were arrested in an operation carried out yesterday by the National Unit for Combating Cybercrime and Technological Crime of the Judiciary Police, in conjunction with the Public Prosecutor's Office of the District of Faro and with Interpol.
In this police operation, 11 search warrants were carried out “to dismantle the national structure of a criminal organization dedicated to banking phishing, which resulted in the arrest of four men and three women and the constitution of another five defendants”.
«At issue is an organized criminal group, strongly accused of committing the crimes of computer fraud, computer forgery, illegitimate access, money laundering and criminal association, which, since 2021, has harmed several citizens in the national territory in an amount exceeding 1,5 million euros", according to the PJ.
The computer crimes in question fall under “the mode of action called phishing, in the form of smishing and vishing, where the implementation of the criminal plan begins when customers of banking institutions, when accessing false pages created for this purpose, end up being deceived, providing the necessary information so that, subsequently, illegitimate access to their accounts can be carried out by hackers».
«The victims were then contacted by voice call, by an individual who claimed to be from the banking entity's security service, with the aim of validating the illicit bank transfers made», reveals the PJ.
«In this specific case, everything indicates that we are dealing with a type of organized and structured crime, made up of several individuals who perform different well-defined functions, with the purpose of illicitly appropriating the victims' financial assets», believes the same police force.
As a result of the operation, «various computer equipment used to commit crimes was seized, the value of which amounts to around 30 thousand euros, as well as several bank accounts with a balance exceeding 200 thousand euros».
Detainees will be brought before the competent judicial authority to apply coercive measures.
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