Faro Public Prosecutor’s Office accuses 71 people of banking computer fraud – Portugal

The Public Ministry (MP) of Faro charged 71 people with the crimes of computer fraud, money laundering and criminal association, some of which belonged to the Brazilian criminal organization Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC), it was announced this Monday.

According to a note published on the Évora Regional Attorney General’s Office portal, the defendants, of Portuguese and Brazilian nationalities, but also from African countries, were dedicated to capturing data and access codes to bank accounts, which they accessed and subtract money.

According to the MP, the defendants acted using a method called ‘phishing’, by creating a false page identical to those of banking institutions, to convince victims that they were accessing their banks’ real portals and inserting their account access credentials there. .

In possession of the data, the criminals entered the victim’s bank account through the bank’s real page and programmed a monetary transfer to the bank account of another element linked to the organization, details the MP.

Later, he adds, posing as a bank employee, they called the victim to inform him that they had detected a false banking transaction, and that to cancel it they needed the code that the bank was going to send to their cell phone.

The defendants then created a second page where they reflected the fraudulent operation, which the victim accessed, already convinced that they were real bank employees and that they wanted to cancel the transfer.

As the defendants remained on the phone with the victim, the victim told them the code that allowed them to validate the bank transfer operation, then circulating the money through various bank accounts between Portugal and Brazil, in order to be laundered, it reads in the note.

For the MP, the success of the crime is related to the speed with which the computer operations were carried out, using computers that may be housed in a third country and the credibility that the defendants conveyed in dialogue with the victim.

According to the Prosecutor’s Office, it is a well-structured organization, where the defendants have specific functions, namely those who dealt with IT, those who called victims and those who made bank accounts available in order to circulate money. .

The accusation against the 71 defendants was brought on April 22 by the director of the Department of Investigation and Criminal Action (DIAP) of the district of Faro, in an investigation carried out by the Judiciary Police.