There are also three from Bergamo among the people involved in an investigation by the Vimercate Carabinieri Company accused of criminal association, fraud, impersonation and improper use of payment instruments. The provision is based on the results of an investigation from November 2022, as part of a proceeding coordinated by the Public Prosecutor’s Office at the Court of Monza, which obtained the precautionary custody in prison of a 54-year-old from Dalmine and Bergamo (both Italian) andobligation to reside in Capriate for a 49 year old woman and in Burago di Molgora for a 50-year-old man. Eight other people are under investigation at large for the same crimes.
It all started with the complaint of a PostePay card holder who had noticed some anomalous movements on his account statement, initially made it possible to identify the son of the same complainant as the author of the unrecognized transactions, and to verify that they were related to credits made by people found to be victims of Online scams created with fake “bait” ads on well-known virtual platforms dedicated to the buying and selling of cars. Victims interested in purchasing a vehicle whose advertisement was often accompanied by photographs and detailed information, contacted the fake seller at the indicated address and they paid a sum of money as an advance. But the fake sellers, once they received the money, disappeared. The fraudsters were thus traced, with observation and stalking, searches and seizures of IT devices, debit cards and other things available to the suspects.
The existence of a real criminal association emerged, whose main exponents used other affiliates who made the debit cards used to receive the undue credits available to the organization, pocketing, as compensation, a percentage of the fraudulent operations. So far, 25 alleged scams against victims have been confirmed residents respectively in the provinces of Monza and Brianza, Vicenza, Udine, Turin, Arezzo, Naples, Lecce, Siena, Padua, Mantua and Prato, which earned, between August 2022 and June 2023, illicit proceeds estimated in total at over 50,000 euros.
