The investigationscoordinated by Milan Prosecutor’s Officethey have shed light on a criminal association specialized in fraudulent telephone activations of electricity and gas contracts.
Starting from the complaint of a Milanese priest, harassed by calls from call centers which, with insistence and aggressive tones, they asked him to pay unpaid bills relating to electricity and gas contracts he had never signed, the Cyber Security Operations Center (COSC) of Milan has discovered the existence of an impressive criminal system – – consisting of two Padua companies supplying electricity and gas and numerous call centers with offices in Italy and Albania – specialized in fraudulent activation of contracts for the supply of energy, extortion and self-laundering of illicit proceeds. The investigation, conducted by the Milan Postal Police under the direction of the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Milan and the Special Prosecutor’s Office against the Corruption and Organized Crime (SPAK) of Tirana (with the assistance of the Italian Liaison Magistrate in Albania), saw the participation of the Postal Police and Cyber Security Service and, for the activities carried out in Tiranaof the Service for International Cooperation and Police – – Office of the Security Expert in Albania, together with the Criminal Police Department – – Investigation Directorate and Cyber Crimes Unit of the Albanian State Police and SPAK’s National Bureau Investigation (NBI).
The scams carried out by the suspects started from numerous and insistent phone calls (also done early in the morning and late in the evening) with where victim data was collected, which they were convinced they were talking to ARERA employees (Regulatory Authority for Energy, Networks and the Environment) odthe energy companies with which they had regular agreements, contracts for the supply of electricity and gas. This information was collected resorting to pretexts likefor example, phantom roadworks that had severed the electrical cables or gas pipes and because of which it was necessary to temporarily activate a new contract with an “agreed” operator.
When they couldn’t persuade the victimthe suspects they used the data acquired during the phone calls to activate the contract anyway by placing false signatures at the bottom of the paper documentation.
In other cases, when the activation procedure required a voice recordingthe voice of the victim, recorded during the phone call, it was artfully manipulated with audio editors or artificial intelligence apps so that they could be heardpronounced by the unaware user, the necessary personal data and the various “yes” in response to the questions of the telephone operator responsible for collecting consent.
Only after a few months, the victims, completely unaware of having signed a contract with a new energy company, they were receiving very high payment reminders for unpaid bills. At that point the ordeal of countless phone calls began, by tones increasingly aggressive and intimidating, with which self-styled debt collectors demanded payment of the outstanding amount.
In several cases, make certain during the investigation, such requests turned into real extortion. The threatening phrasingreported by the victims, it was always the same: “in the meantime, we will reduce your electricity supply and, if you still don’t pay, we will cut off the electricity”. The tones the phone calls were much more aggressive, the more vulnerable the victims proved to be, among these, an elderly 87-year-old Venetian woman.
The systematic violation of the rules dictated by the GDPR was also ascertained (General Data Protection Regulation) regarding the collection and processing of victims’ personal datanot only because of the ways in which they were acquired and preserved, but also for unauthorized sharing with third parties, in some cases based abroad (in this case in Albania).
The complex and detailed investigative activity involved the analysis of an impressive quantity of electronic and banking databeyond to carry out targeted police services in the area, in Italy and Albania, aimed at acquiring all the necessary evidence.
As the investigations took shape, the operators of the State Police managed to identify numerous additional victims (about a thousand) that they still didn’t realize they had fallen into the trap. Many of them contributed significantly to the success of the investigations, by filing a complaint or providing useful information for the precise reconstruction of the facts.
The local and IT searches ordered by the Milanese prosecutor’s office concerned a total of 35 targets, of which 32 in Italy and 3 in Albania, in the city of Tirana. In particularthe activities they affected the two operational offices of the Padua energy companies (moreover recently sanctioned by the Privacy Guarantor and the Antitrust), 12 call center locations (of which 3 in Albania) e 21 subjects including administrators, accountants, consultants and employees of energy companies and call centers.
Among the elements that have already emerged during the investigations those acquired at the headquarters of a call center are of particular importance; they were Copies of fraudulent contracts found subject of the complaint and the related voice recordings; furthermore, they were found up-to-date lists of residential usersto be contacted for the stipulation of electricity and gas contracts, which are so large as to require considerable IT resources for management and consultation.
Conspicuous the profits made which in the first three months of 2023 amount to approximately 9 million euros.
Also thanks to the seizure of computer systems, remote servers, cloud spaces and specialized technological equipment, the operation dealt a very hard blow to the phenomenon of “wild telemarketing” which torments millions of citizens, in contempt of the rules established to protect consumers (in particular the one that prohibits contacting users registered in the Opposition Register).
It is represented that at two common objectives the search activities were carried out jointly with the military belonging to the Special Currency Police Unit of the Financial Police – – II Milan Group, operating within a different investigation context.
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