The fraudulent call center was based in Odessa. The callers were Czechs, their recruitment in the Czech Republic was handled by a fifty-year-old Czech woman. The police detained 23 Czechs, seven women and 16 men, of which six were arrested in Ukraine. They are now awaiting extradition to the Czech Republic, where the police will charge them.
The police have already charged those detained in the Czech Republic and three of them have been taken into custody by the court. The Ukrainian police detained 17 Ukrainians during an operation coordinated with the Czech police.
Laptops, cell phones, money
The police managed to secure a total of five dozen laptops, almost 60 mobile phones, over 100 SIM cards, less than a dozen flash drives and crypto-wallets, and over 30 payment cards both in the Czech Republic and Ukraine.
In cash, almost half a million hryvnias, 80 thousand dollars, one thousand euros, drugs and weapons. “As part of the financial investigation, it was not possible to secure any funds from the accounts of the accused,” said police spokeswoman Iva Kormošová. They secured only three properties in our territory.
Fake bankers
On Tuesday, the Ukrainian authorities reported different numbers of detainees and the amount of damage in the case. According to them, nine people were detained in Ukraine, six of them Czechs. From at least sixteen victims in the Czech Republic, they lured over three million crowns. The frauds were organized by a 40-year-old Ukrainian, the local police said.
The callers pretended to be employees of the Czech National Bank. They claimed that their account had been hacked and that they needed to transfer their savings to a so-called rescue account. “In some cases, they tricked victims into installing a remote administration program, thereby gaining unrestricted access to their online banking,” the spokeswoman said. The defrauded lost not only their savings, but also the money from the loans, which they seem to have applied for themselves.
A multi-million dollar loss
The accused used the real names of bank employees and fake bank and police phone numbers, so victims thought they were talking to a bank employee or a police officer. The accused mostly transferred money from the accounts of the victims to the accounts of mainly Ukrainians living in the Czech Republic, who in turn withdrew the money from ATMs and passed it on to other people.
So far, the police officers have proven more than 150 frauds to the group with a loss of almost 30 million crowns. Of this, over 22 million crowns is complete damage, the rest is damage in the trial or preparation stage. The police assume that the accused will still prove hundreds of frauds.
The criminals are done
The investigation file has over 20,000 sheets so far. According to the deputy director of the National Center against Terrorism, Extremism and Cybercrime Jiří Nový, Czech police officers also participated in the final event in Ukraine.
All have already returned safely to the Czech Republic. “The complete structure of an organized criminal group has been broken. Criminal activity in cyberspace knows no borders and its detection requires a high level of expertise and a team approach.” Novy said.
