The Specialized Action Group to Combat Organized Crime of the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the State of Rio de Janeiro (Gaeco) and the Civil Police, through the 77th Police Precinct (Icaraí), are serving eight arrest warrants this Thursday (19) against people accused of criminal association and fraud. According to the complaint filed by the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP), which gave rise to Operation Fraus, the group harmed several victims, mostly elderly people, by using cloned checks with false signatures at bank branches.
The investigations were carried out by the 15th Notary Collections Division (DEAC).
The warrants were issued by the 1st Criminal Court of Niterói and are being served in Rio Comprido, Rocinha, Barra da Tijuca, Itanhangá and Caju. The Public Prosecutor’s Office has charged 16 people with criminal association and fraud. All of the targets of the arrest warrants have criminal records for committing property crimes.
According to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the defendants fraudulently accessed the personal and banking information of the victims, all elderly, and cloned their checkbooks, forging the signatures of the account holders. With the cloned checks, the defendants made withdrawals and deposits directly at bank tellers, debiting the amounts from the victims’ accounts. According to the complaint, the group committed the crime 32 times against seven victims.
According to the complaint, to ensure the success of the scam, the criminals “hijacked” the telephone line of the targets of the scam, and asked the operator for a new one. chip in the name of the victims, using false documents. With the chip in hand, they were able to block any attempt by the victims to contact the bank. When the bank employee called the victim to confirm payment of the check, the call was diverted to the line controlled by the criminal group, so that the criminals themselves could authorize the clearing of the checks, thus ensuring the success of the scam.
To date, the amount determined in the investigations amounts to approximately R$130,000 in losses to the victims,” says the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
The name of the operation, Fraus, in Latin, means fraud.
