With the beginning of the so-called "Phase 2" of the health emergency linked to COVID-19 many companies are starting up again and in order to comply with the required safety standards, showing a great sense of responsibility towards their employees, they are trying to get supplies in the shortest time. possible time of Personal Protective Equipment. It is precisely in the need to find such precious goods such as gloves and masks in a short time that the scammers recognize the opportunity to obtain illicit profits by exploiting the state of immediate need of the companies. In fact, some companies in complete good faith, but in a little shrewd way, rely on improvised and unsafe supply channels.
The Postal Police, in these days, is seeing the emergence of this new criminal phenomenon linked to the health emergency. In fact, numerous companies have filed a complaint with the Department for having been victims of scams while trying to buy a stock of PPE for their employees.
After having assumed information on who could be a reliable intermediary, the unfortunate are invited to call a company based in Central Italy, which declaring to have the availability of the product sought requires payment by bank transfer to accounts created specifically to be able to send the goods. .
While there is no trace of the templates, the management of the sums obtained illicitly is prudent and prudent: the duration of the sums on these `accordion accounts' of the sums is very short because after a few hours the money is dispersed in a thousand streams being distributed as compensation for the activity performed by the various subjects to plot the scam.
Postal Police investigators have already blocked part of the sums received on the support accounts of the scammers and are carrying out the first investigations.
The Postal Police advises anyone who needs to procure Personal Protection devices to rely on secure channels, checking before concluding any negotiation whether the company is actually existing by searching online for reviews on the company and experiences of previous customers.
It is also useful to check whether there is correspondence between the declared address of the headquarters and a property intended for commercial purposes using common tools such as "Google Street View".