TRENT. The financiers of the provincial command of Trento have executed a preventive seizure decree of assets and financial resources amounting to approximately 80,000 euros against 5 subjects – 4 Italians and one Uruguayan – investigated in competition with each other for the hypothesis of the crime of aggravated fraud, impersonation, violation of the privacy code, computer fraud with abusive access to computer and telematic systems and falsehood in registers and notifications subject to control by the authorities.
The investigations – conducted by the Fiamme Gialle of the Trento economic-financial police unit and coordinated by the local Public Prosecutor’s Office – arose following a complaint lodged by a pensioner who had his credit card charged for the activation of a SIM card registered in the name of the already deceased spouse, have highlighted serious criminal irregularities carried out, from 2020 to 2022, by the owners and employees of a company based in Trento, operating with four sales points throughout Trentino, in the sales and cell phone assistance and services related to mobile telephony.
The complex investigations – carried out through targeted accesses and searches, acquisition of computer data and examination of various witnesses in documents – revealed that the suspects, taking advantage of the availability of customer data, activated telephone accounts and carried out alleged “instalment” sales of cell phones using the personal and banking data of unsuspecting customers – stored in the telephone operator’s centralized registry – in order to increase the sales objectives of the commercial establishments.
The analysis of the elements acquired during the investigations, also thanks to the collaboration of the telephone operator, made it possible to discover that the directors and employees of the aforementioned company, through the affixing of apocryphal signatures without the knowledge of the holders of the sales contracts, in the period investigated, they perpetrated a scam against 57 consumers (mainly elderly people) by activating over 900 SIM cards in their names and fictitiously selling 62 smartphones.
In other cases, by handling the cell phone of the unaware user, who had gone to the business for some malfunctions and/or updates of the software applications, unsolicited pay telephone services were activated.
Debiting your current account or credit card in installments of the consumer from the transfer of the mobile phone or the aforementioned paid services made the cost for the victim less evident. Subsequently, the formally activated SIMs and apparently sold cell phones, which remained in the shop, were sold to third parties “under the table” or with receipts bearing generic items. The conduct indicated above allowed the company both to make it appear that sales standards and budgets had been achieved, which in reality had never been achieved, with evident damage to the telephone operator who awarded commercial prizes and bonuses, and to collect for itself the consideration for the sale of the aforementioned SIM cards. and cell phones.
Taking into account the evidentiary framework acquired and the responsibilities that emerged against the suspects, the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Trento requested and obtained from the investigating judge of the local Court preventive seizure fruit of the illicit activity, equal to the profit, approximately 80 thousand euros, obtained by the company from the sale of the aforementioned products and services.
During the execution of the judicial order, the Trentino Fiamme Gialle therefore seized financial assets deposited in the current accounts of the suspects and of a property.
At the end of the investigations, through the Financial Police Privacy and Technology Fraud Protection Unit, the company was reported to the Guarantor for the protection of personal data to evaluate the conduct of the directors of the aforementioned company for the purposes of privacy legislation. This Authority, following a specific investigation, after having found the violation of the principles of lawfulness and correctness of the processing of personal data, issued an administrative fine of 150,000 euros to the Trentino company.
At the end of the investigations, the judicial authority issued the decree closing the investigations, confirming the charges against 5 subjects and formulating the request for indictment.
