Today’s morning, 7 May 2024, the Carabinieri Company of Vimercate, assisted by the Weapon Commands competent for their respective places of residence, carried out an application order for personal precautionary measures issued by the investigating judge. of the Court of Monza at the request of the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Monza against four people of Italian nationality, all already known to the police, domiciled respectively in Brianza and in the province of Bergamo and seriously suspected of crimes of criminal association, fraud , replacement of person and improper use of payment instruments.
An alleged association dedicated to online scams has been discovered
The provision is based on the results of an investigation conducted by the Carabinieri Station of Vimercate starting from November 2022, as part of a proceeding coordinated by the Public Prosecutor’s Office at the Court of Monza, which requested and obtained the application of the precautionary custody in prison against a 54-year-old and a 34-year-old, domiciled in the municipalities of Dalmine and Bergamo, and the obligation to reside in the municipalities of Burago di Molgora and Capriate San Gervasio against a 50-year-old and a 49-year-old woman. A further eight subjects, investigated for the same types of crime as alleged accomplices, are being prosecuted at the same time in a state of freedom.
The investigation started from the complaint of the holder of a PostePay card
The investigative activity arose from the complaint of the holder of a PostePay card who had noticed some anomalous movements on his bank statement. The investigations initially made it possible to identify the complainant’s son as the author of the unrecognized operations, and then to verify that the operations themselves were related to credits made by people who were victims of online scams carried out through the publication of fake advertisements ” bait” on well-known virtual platforms dedicated to the buying and selling of vehicles.
In particular, according to the accusatory statement considered valid by the precautionary judge, the victims, interested in purchasing a vehicle whose sales announcement was often also accompanied by photographs and detailed information, contacted the fake seller at the address indicated and paid a sum of money as an advance while waiting to complete the operation, reserving the right to pay the balance upon delivery of the goods. However, the deal never materialized because the authors of the alleged scams, after having collected the agreed advance, remained untraceable.
The soldiers of the Vimercate Company, having identified the modus operandi and also the alleged accomplices involved in the scams, carried out meticulous investigations through the collection and analysis of the victims’ complaints, the shadowing and observation of the participants in the association and further searches and seizures of IT devices, debit cards and other assets belonging to the suspects, deemed relevant to the crimes.
The association and its affiliates
At the end of the investigative investigations, it emerged, according to the circumstantial framework included in today’s provision, the existence of a real criminal association, whose main exponents, identified as the recipients of the precautionary measures carried out, made use of other affiliates who they made the debit cards used to receive the undue credits available to the organization, pocketing, as compensation for the illicit service, a percentage of the fraudulent transactions.
The association met in Agrate
During the investigation, the Carabinieri identified a well-known restaurant in Agrate Brianza – whose owners and related staff were completely unaware and unrelated to the matter – as the meeting place of the members of the association, where the phases and methods of each scam were agreed upon, as well as the division of the proceeds.
25 alleged scams discovered but investigations continue
The investigative findings currently concern 25 alleged scams carried out in the manner described to the detriment of victims residing respectively in the provinces of Monza and Brianza, Vicenza, Udine, Turin, Arezzo, Naples, Lecce, Siena, Padua, Mantua and Pratowhich yielded illicit proceeds estimated in total at over 50,000 euros between August 2022 and June 2023.
During the execution of the precautionary measure, assets and documents of various kinds were found and subjected to seizure, deemed relevant to the crimes being prosecuted. The investigations also continue to identify possible further scams that developed according to the same operational scheme that emerged.
Those arrested to be subjected to precautionary custody in prison were transferred to the relevant prisons, available to the judicial authority that issued the measure.
