Through meticulous monitoring of a criminal group called ‘Los Cyber’, the Dijín and the Prosecutor’s Office allowed the identification of 16 of its members who were stealing through calls to businessmen and elderly people by impersonating bank agents.
The criminals withdrew money from ATMs and physical bank points located throughout the country. EL TIEMPO had access to audios that investigators recorded during months of surveillance, which clearly show the ‘modus operandi’ of this criminal group.
The organizational chart
According to the file known by this newspaper, ‘Los Cyber’ operated from Pereira and managed to scam 94 people in more than 10 departments, obtaining profits exceeding 1.6 billion pesos.
Through raids on homes in the capital of Risaralda and in Bogotá, the authorities captured Karen Sofía Posada, Ángel Camilo Salamanca Daza, Andrea Castaño Ferro, Alexandra Posada Ferro, Manuel Clavijo Gutiérrez, Yasmin Eliana Naranjo, Juan Andrés León, Kevin Andrés Menjura, and Mateo Ramírez Florez, the latter a well-known footballer who played in the Colombian professional league.
As well as Carlos Fuentes Parra, John Edwin Acosta – coordinator of the criminal group -, Jaime Andrés Bedoya, Víctor Monroy García, Hernán Darío Pico, Margedys Vides Pineda, Esneda Muñoz Núñez, and Ralf Sebastián Nieva Vásquez, alias Ralf, who, according to the organizational chart, would be the leader of the organization.
The detainees played the role of calling the victims pretending to be officials from banking entities.
In the audios in EL TIEMPO’s possession, it is heard how with script in hand, they deceived the victims making them believe they were recording fraudulent transactions.
The audios
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The scammers started by presenting themselves as bank agents warning the victims of identity theft.
“Jorge, to verify the additional login being made from devices not recognized by the platform. From the city of Cali, attempts have been made to make purchases in commercial establishments at chain stores of **** for amounts exceeding 500 thousand pesos. Unusual movements such as withdrawal attempts at ATMs in the city of Ibagué have also been made.
Are you the one directly making these unusual movements?”, is heard in one of the audios from the fake advisor.
Once the situation is presented, they ask the victim to perform a preventive block of the banking application from the cell phone: “Sir, the download was generated from the **** app.
From there, they are trying to make all kinds of unusual movements. In this case, it was deleted for security, and a preventive block will be made, as it is likely that you are a victim of identity theft. We must quickly perform the preventive block. Any questions or concerns before starting the procedure?”.
Subsequently, they send a link via WhatsApp to the victim to carry out the false procedure and provide all their personal data: “Please put the phone on speaker, go to WhatsApp, and receive the welcome from the Tabot assistant, with whom from today you will have direct communication 24 hours a day, seven days a week”.
During the call, the subjects deceive the victim into believing they must attend an appointment with the bank to resolve the supposed identity theft case: “A prior appointment will be accepted for today at the end of the afternoon or tomorrow at the nearest **** entity to you. There they will inform you about the investigation that will be initiated directly with the people generating the purchase, and a prior appointment must be scheduled to perform the unblocking”.
The withdrawals
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With that facade, the gang managed to scam the victims and, once with the account data, other members went to ATMs to make more than 20 withdrawals, which in some cases exceeded 30 million pesos.
One of the reporting victims reported a theft of 304 million pesos from their bank account.
The investigation established that once the money was in the criminals’ account, they made withdrawals at ATMs and banking entities located in the localities of Suba, Kennedy, and in the municipality of Soacha.
In fact, several of them were identified making the withdrawals and were recorded on the security cameras of the ATMs or bank branches.
During the raids, the authorities seized 7 million pesos in cash, 35 bank cards, 22 cell phones, and 5 SIM cards, 4 laptops, and 6 USB drives.
The detainees were charged with the crimes of conspiracy to commit a crime, illicit enrichment of individuals, theft by computer and similar means, abusive access to a computer system, and violation of personal data. All crimes under circumstances of punitive aggravation.
(Check here all the articles from EL TIEMPO’s Investigative Unit)
It is not ruled out that the network operated in complicity with officials from banking entities.
“Generally, they profiled their victims and already knew how much money they moved in their accounts, their occupations, and even the ATMs they frequented. Therefore, it is being verified if they had people inside who sold them the data”, a source close to the investigation told EL TIEMPO.
And added that new arrests are not ruled out.
INVESTIGATIVE UNIT
u.investigativa@eltiempo.com
@UinvestigativaET
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