More than one person has been the victim of cases where they have been offered to lend large sums of money, but in the end they found criminals.
CARCHI Editorial Office
So far in 2022, at least eight people have been victims of a new type of robbery on the northern border, in the province of Carchi.
It all starts with a Loan offer moneythrough social networks or Facebook groups where different products or services are frequently offered, and where advertisements of so-called ‘microcredit organizations’ who give loans to rates of 3%, with amounts from $1,000 to $900,000.
At least that’s what happened to one of the last victims, who reported the incident to the Judicial Police, the third week of February 2022.
The man, in his 35s, described traveled eight hours from his city Riobambain the province of Chimborazo, to tulcanto the north, on the Ecuadorian border with Colombiawhere a person was waiting for him to supposedly take him to meet someone who would lend him $300,000.
He added that a truck received him in Tulcán, as far as he had to go with a certain amount of money, which in his case was $1,500to serve as ‘lace’ and can receive the loan.
In addition, they told him that the supposed moneylender was in Ipiales (Colombia), so they had to cross some ‘gauge’ and not by the regular pace of Rumichaca to continue with the process.
However, midway, upon reaching a desolate area, a group of people stripped him of all his belongings and left it abandoned on the spot.
They investigate an international gang
From the National Police they detailed that this case is added to others seven similar reported in 2022, in Carchi, where the theft of cars of the people who arrive by their own means to meet the swindlers and thieves, so they consider the hypothesis that it would be a international organized gang.
To try to find the whereabouts of those responsible, they mention that they work together with the Colombian Policesince the information from the victims reveals that in some cases they would also have been summoned in Ipiales.
No victim is carchense
The police warn that this type of fraud and robbery is being carried out with people from other provinces, who are summoned to the northern border, in Tulcán (Ecuador) or Ipiales (Colombia), adding that none of the victimsUntil now, belongs to the province of Carchi.
As part of the differences with other types of scams of this type, they explain that in other cases reported at the national level people are not quoted anywhere, but that the crime is consummated through digital means.
In such cases, they explain that they are asked to deposit a certain amount of money to access the loan, also demanding information and documentation via email, thus avoiding contact between the partsbut when the victims called their alleged lenders again they no longer answered the phoneslosing all kinds of communication and carrying out the scam.
“This new modality seems to generate greater trust, up to a certain point, with criminals, because you are asked to meet with the alleged lender and continue with the processeven asking the victims to bring presents to this person, whom they never meet,” said one of the agents investigating these cases, who asked to keep his name confidential.
Given this, the National Police warns citizens to be alert and go to legally constituted institutions to apply for all kinds of loans and thus avoid economic losses.
Las autoridades piden a quienes han sido víctimas de estos delitos que se acerquen a las dependencias de la Policía y Fiscalía para que realicen las denuncias respectivas.
