This morning the State Police executed a seizure decree through blackout of 473 online resources relating to websites, accounts and advertisements on a well-known social platform.
These resources advertised and promoted false financial investments through online trading platforms, offered to an indistinct public.
Internet users were induced to rely on the seriousness of the investment since the promotional messages were conveyed through the undue exploitation of the ENI spa brand and the image of the CEO pro tempore.
In many cases, deepfake videos were used, which through artificial intelligence, made people believe the full involvement of ENI spa and its top management bodies in the advertising of investment offers.
Thanks to the precious collaboration with ENI's Security function and following meticulous research on web sources, coordinated by the Postal Communications Police Service, access from the national territory was inhibited for each of the resources.
Further investigations, carried out with the coordination of the Public Prosecutor's Office and the GIP Office of the Court of Rome, made it possible to identify some subjects involved in the subsequent phase of monetization of the illicitly obtained resources. It should be noted that the proceeding is in the preliminary investigation phase and that therefore the parties involved must be considered not guilty until a final sentence is reached. Against these, the staff of the Cyber Security Operations Center - Lazio Postal Police are simultaneously executing search and seizure decrees.
Today's operation is part of the constant prevention and combating activity carried out by this Specialty, against the widespread phenomenon of false online trading, through which victims are deceived and induced to pay their savings.
The criminal phenomenon produces illicit profits in the order of millions of euros every year.
In order to prevent and combat the onset of this type of scam, which also fuels crimes such as money laundering, tax evasion and illegal financial activity, which act as a lever for organized crime, the State Police suggests:
- Be wary of online investment offers that promise immediate and very high profits.
- Do not trust investment advertisements that use logos of institutions or companies or images of well-known people: they serve to make the scam credible.
- Always and in any case verify that the person proposing an investment is authorized to do so and in particular, that the company or financial intermediary is registered on the platform www.consob.it (National Commission for Companies and the Stock Exchange), verifying any "alerts" present on the site.
- Prefer companies operating in the European Union, as to date, no company or trading platform is authorized to operate in our country.
- Before making any investment or having a working relationship with any company or platform, make sure that it is regular, i.e. has a regular VAT number and an existing registered office; sometimes a simple search using common search engines is necessary to establish its authenticity, also through any reviews, which act as a guideline.
The investigative activity, if the complaint is timely, involves the immediate activation of the International Police Cooperation channels, with the request for the urgent blocking of the sums paid and the carrying out of checks on the financial flows, which are normally destined abroad .
In any case, the State Police reminds you that you must always find the courage to contact the competent authorities to ask for the necessary support in order to avoid greater risks or damage, also using the information dedicated to this type of crime and present on the portal of the Commissariat of PS online, reachable at: https://www.commissariatodips.it/
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