Dozens of phone calls from call center operators received by a Milanese priest. Harassed and worried by the threatening tones that the interlocutors took, the parish priest decided to report. Thus began the investigations of the Milan Postal Police which discovered an international network of criminals, mainly made up of Albanian citizens, dedicated to telephone scams on domestic electricity and gas expenses. The victims were accused of not having paid bills which, however, related to contracts never stipulated by those contacted. The scammers also exploited artificial intelligence: using the voices of the victims, they played artificial recordings on the computer to trick the victims into thinking they had given consent to such contracts. The criminal system was based on numerous call centers, located between Italy and Albania, and two gas and electricity supply companies based in Padua.
How the scam worked
The scam started with the hooking of the user, reached on his cell phone in the early hours of the morning or late in the evening. The objective of this first phase was to steal as much information as possible: the criminals pretended to be operators of Arera – Energy and Environment Network Regulatory Authority – or of the companies with which the users had actually signed energy contracts. After that, the operators suggested changing the supply company using some excuses, such as gas leaks or interruption of services for public works. If persuasion did not succeed, the criminal group still stipulated contracts in the name of the victims, making use of artificial intelligence: thus virtual “yes”s were recreated, necessary for the stipulation of vocal contracts. Finally, the threatening calls started to get the bills paid. An 87-year-old woman, who ended up in the sights of scammers, was told: “In the meantime we will reduce your power and if you don’t pay we will cut it off.”
The investigative activity
The sum embezzled from a thousand people was estimated at around 9 million euros. To defeat the fake bill gang, the State Police carried out 35 searches, of which 32 in Italy and three in Tirana. «The searches involved the two operational offices of the Padua energy companies – recently sanctioned by the Privacy Guarantor and the Antitrust -, 12 call center offices – of which three in Albania – and 21 subjects including administrators, accountants, consultants and employees of energy companies and call centers”, reports theHandle. Several copies of the fraudulent contracts with the related voice recordings were found in a call center. Very long lists of users yet to be contacted and, presumably, defrauded were also found.
