They steal the identity of a well-known television journalist and get over 100 thousand euros from financial companies - a gang of cyber criminals operating throughout the country identified and defeated
Last year a well-known television journalist turned to the State Police, realizing that in his name there were three loans arranged by the financial companies ING Direct, Findomestic and Agos, for a total amount of about 100 thousand euros (one from 50 thousand and two for 25 thousand euros) that he had never requested.
The Postal Police of Bologna coordinated by the Postal and Communications Police Service of Rome began a complex investigative activity, ascertaining that the sums of money had first been channeled onto a single banking relationship, then divided into three other current accounts held by third parties and finally monetized by withdrawals from ATMs or bets in the betting shops of Rome, Florence and Livorno.
The funding had been obtained online using the computer copies of the journalist's true identity documents, the falsified paycheck and other personal documentation previously acquired thanks to abusive access to the victim's accounts.
The "collector" banking relationships, which were also fraudulently registered to the journalist, had been activated through the computerized reproduction of the journalist's documents, however bearing the image of another man.
Thanks to the use of a special face recognition computer program (SARI), the individual was identified in a 63-year-old Neapolitan victim living in Rome, thus leading investigators to extend investigations in the capital.
The analysis of the connections made to carry out the transfers made it possible to ascertain that all the operations had been carried out by devices, all located in Rome.
The comparison of the telephone records of the holders of the current accounts on which the profits flowed with the examination of the data relating to the ATM withdrawals allowed to identify the organizers of the fraud in two convicts, a 31-year-old Roman and a Piedmontese of 47.
The epilogue of the investigations materialized with the execution of two house searches against the suspects who were reported for concurrence in the crime of abusive access to the computer system, replacement of person and fraud.
A sixty-three year old resident in Florence and a forty-four year old resident in Livorno were also reported for having provided their current account account in order to receive the fraudulent sums.
The investigations were coordinated by Dr. Nicola Scalabrini of the cybercrime pool of the Prosecutor of Bologna.
The credit companies with which the loans were made did not claim that the victim would bear the resulting debt; the journalist therefore did not suffer the (huge) economic damage resulting from the fraud. Instead, he was certainly the victim of abusive access to his personal data kept in the computer system (one of the most coveted products by cyber criminals) and of personal replacement.
The timeliness of the complaint, which any citizen must produce without delay, has protected the victim from the immediate (but also future) consequences of the crimes that may have been committed with his data and documents.
It is always advisable to protect your personal data (documents, confidential information, bank details, payment card details) by keeping them in password-protected media avoiding improper disclosure.