PC of Pará arrests three men in Minas Gerais for scam of over R$ 30 thousand
The trio was investigated for scamming a woman in June 2024 and will face charges of qualified fraud, criminal association, and money laundering
On the morning of this Wednesday (1), the Civil Police of the State of Pará, through teams from the 10th Urban Section of Pedreira, with support from the State Department for Combating Corruption and Fraud of the Civil Police of Minas Gerais, and real-time support from the Police Intelligence Center (NIP), launched the "False Central Operation." The objective was to execute arrest warrants against three men for the crimes of qualified fraud using electronic means, criminal association, and money laundering. The crime was committed against a woman in June 2024.
Understand the case - The woman was a victim of the scam known as "false call center," in which the person receives a phone call from a number mirroring that of the bank's call center.
During the call, according to the victim, a speaker posed as an employee of the fraud prevention department of the institution and informed her that her card had supposedly been cloned and, as a result, the victim needed to provide her details and hand over her magnetic card to a supposed civil police officer for examination. The victim handed over the card, and as soon as the man took possession of it, he made several bank transactions that totaled a loss of R$ 30,250.00.
Delegate Maria Letícia, who coordinated and presided over the investigations, details that to commit the crimes, the suspects divided their roles. "After a year of investigation, a complex criminal association divided into three nuclei was identified: 'recruitment,' which made phone calls and convinced the victim; 'execution,' which carried out the card retrieval and purchases; and 'financial,' responsible for laundering the amounts and distributing them among the members. This reveals the degree of specialization and permanence of the group," pointed out the delegate.
The teams reached the individuals through analysis of bank secrecy breaches, with the assistance of the Laboratory of Technology Against Money Laundering (LABLD). It was identified that the financial nucleus was composed of three men, one of whom had over 18 records with the Civil Police for crimes involving fraud and other property crimes and three records with the Federal Police - for counterfeiting, twice, and false identity. According to the investigations, he would be the likely orchestrator of the entire criminal scheme.
“After gathering all the evidence, a request was made for the preventive arrest of the individuals, and after approval, a survey of the targets was conducted with the support of the Police Intelligence Center (NIP). A team from the 10th Urban Section of Pedreira was mobilized to execute the warrants, which was also made possible with the support of the police teams from the Department for Combating Corruption and Fraud of the Civil Police of Minas Gerais,” explained Delegate Pery Netto, head of the Pedreira Section.
After completing the legal formalities, the suspects are at the disposal of the Justice, and investigations continue to identify the members of the recruitment and execution nuclei of the crime.
*Text by Jacqueline Costa, intern, under the supervision of Esther Pinheiro (Ascom/PC)
