Criminal association dedicated to the latest computer fraud, more than 1 million euro defrauded, stolen data and cards of thousands of customers, hundreds of fraudulent phone calls monitored by investigators.
The State Police carried out 6 precautionary measures against a criminal organization, residing in the Neapolitan hinterland but operating throughout the national territory, whose members are under investigation for the crimes of criminal association aimed at the replacement of the person, the aggravated theft and the undue use of electronic payment cards.
At the request of the investigating PM, the investigating magistrate of Perugia deemed it necessary to apply the "inframuraria" measure of custody in custody against ESPOSITO Ciro (aged 51), ESPOSITO Salvatore (aged 22), SACRA Pasquale (years 39), SIMEOLI Luisa (of years 39) VENTURA Giuseppe (of years 44) and RUBERTI Sabatino (of years 32).
The investigations were started in July 2018 following the reports presented by some Credit Institutions.
The investigative activities, coordinated by the local Public Prosecutor's Office, were also carried out using technical activities and electronic tracking systems, so as to make it possible to ascertain the existence of a criminal association operating indistinctly throughout the national territory, composed of numerous multi-prejudiced (at least 10).
The criminal organization proceeded according to a complex modus operandi that saw the members divided into specific and well-defined tasks. The first step was to carry out the theft of correspondence in Poste Italiane's distribution centers in central and northern Italy.
Within these correspondence collection centers, at night, part of the gang, with consolidated mastery, identified the dispatches containing credit and / or debit cards sent by credit institutions. Taking possession of the precious titles, an expert group of "telephonists" came into play who put into practice the technique of Vishing (Anglo-Saxon Neologism obtained from the crasis between the words voice + phishing).
The group of "telephonists" called the various card issuing institutes and, presenting themselves as Marshal or Inspector of the Police Forces, stated that they had just seized a substantial number of credit cards found in the possession of criminals. By making peremptory and with the excuse of returning the titles in confiscation, the customer's telephone number was indicated.
This was followed by a complex activity of Social Engineering carried out by technical experts who took care of finding all the necessary information and data. Once the data had been obtained, the organization turned its criminal ability precisely towards the customers to whom, pretending to be employees of the bank, feared related problems in the activation of the title, finally succeeding, with persuasive abilities, in getting the PIN of the securities indicated.
The criminal association had its own "technical-financial apparatus" which dealt with equipping the associates with current accounts and prepaid cards with online functions. The criminals could thus monetize the proceeds of the undue uses that, withdrawn for cash on ATMs, then converged on prepaid instruments by recycling large sums of money on credit cards in possession of the various "money mules" managed by the group.
The illicit profit of this activity has brought more than one million euros into the coffers of the criminal organization. There are hundreds of cards affected by fraud.
The detailed investigations carried out by the Postal and Communications Police, also with the precious collaboration of the various credit institutions and Poste Italiane, have made it possible to reconstruct the thefts in collection centers and listen to the abilities of the suspects in deceiving the employees of the Institutes of credit and the unfortunate customers. The damage caused to systems with important repercussions in the postal forwarding system, which saw the suppression of numerous correspondence, was extremely heavy.
The investigations were developed, with the coordination of the Central Postal and Communications Police Service - Financial Cyber Crime Section, by the Postal Police Department for Umbria with the collaboration of the counterpart Department for Campania, as well as the participation in the operations of the Prevention Department. Crime of Naples and the Giugliano PS Commissariat of the Naples Police Headquarters.