The police have announced that they have named four further suspects in connection with a gang which, via a call centre in Kharkiv, defrauded Latvian citizens of over 5.5 million hryvnias. According to law enforcement officials, the suspects tracked down the contact details of people who had already lost money in pseudo-investment scams and, under the pretence of offering legal assistance, gained access to their online banking accounts.
Briefly about the main points
- Four more members of the group were placed under suspicion during the second phase of the operation.
- The contact details of potential victims were purchased on the dark web and in closed online communities.
- The operators proposed a return on investment and asked for a remote access programme to be set up.
- The documented losses suffered by the victims exceeded 116,000 euros.
- One of the suspects was arrested, with bail set at nearly 5 million hryvnias.
The victims’ contact details were purchased following previous investment scams
Pros. according to the investigation’s version, members of the organisation systematically purchased, on the dark web and in closed online communities, the contact details of foreign nationals who had previously fallen victim to pseudo-investment platforms, fake brokers or cryptocurrency scams. The operators claimed to be employees of law firms and offered to help recover the lost funds.
To inspire trust, the scammers emphasised cash-on-delivery payments and pointedly refused to accept advance payments. The victims were subsequently persuaded to install remote access software, ostensibly to undergo «verification».
According to the police, the suspects then gained control of the devices and access to online banking, took out loans in the victims« names and transferred money to accounts and cryptocurrency wallets under their control. In some cases, people were persuaded to change the way they received their pensions, open new accounts, transfer funds between banks or involve »trusted individuals’.
The first stage of the operation took place in May
In May, cyber police officers from the Kharkiv region, investigators from the Main Investigation Directorate and operatives from the SBU’s Directorate for Combating Cybercrime in the Kharkiv region, with the assistance of the National Police’s Department for International Police Co-operation, worked in conjunction with Latvian law enforcement agencies. At that time, two key members of the organisation and three of their accomplices were notified of the allegations against them and detained.
During searches in Kharkiv and the surrounding region, law enforcement officers dismantled illegal call centre, they seized computer equipment, vehicles and other physical evidence. The evidence obtained enabled the investigators to reconstruct the structure of the call centre and the full cycle of the scheme.
The court will consider precautionary measures for the new defendants
Among the four new suspects is a 24-year-old HR manager at a fraudulent call centre. According to the police, she organised polygraph tests for job applicants.
Charges have been brought in connection with participation in a criminal organisation, unauthorised interference with information systems, and fraud on an exceptionally large scale committed by an organised group. One of the suspects has already been remanded in custody, with bail set at nearly 5 million hryvnias.
The case files concerning the imposition of pre-trial measures on the other suspects have been forwarded to the court. The offences charged carry a maximum sentence of 15 years’ imprisonment with confiscation of property; the pre-trial investigation is continuing under the procedural supervision of the Office of the Prosecutor General.
