Earned up to 500 thousand US dollars a month: in the Dnipropetrovsk region police eliminated a network of collection call centers
The attackers rented several premises in Dnipro, where more than a hundred people worked. They were represented by employees of banking institutions or collection firms. The sphere of their “activity” extended both to the territory of Ukraine and to neighboring countries.
Operatives of the Department of Strategic Investigations and investigators of the Main Investigation Department of the National Police exposed and stopped the criminal activity of the network of call centers.
According to the investigation, a 24-year-old resident of the city organized the activities of the centers. Dnipro. Its employees — more than 100 people, posing as employees of banking institutions or collection firms, forced citizens to pay non-existent debts or repay such debt by persons who allegedly acted as guarantors. To do this, they used psychological methods of influence and acted according to prepared instructions. They also used a phone number replacement program to disguise their activities. Client databases were bought by attackers from DarkNet.
The funds received in this way were transferred to electronic wallets, cards of controlled persons, as well as transferred to cryptocurrency, which were later converted into cash on the territory of Ukraine. According to preliminary estimates, the criminal business brought its owners from 250 to 500 thousand US dollars every month.
According to the results of the authorized searches, operatives and investigators with the support of KORD suspended the activities of five call centers, seized “rough” records, 199 mobile phones, more than 500 SIM cards of mobile operators and 549 units of computer equipment.
Police are carrying out further measures to establish the full circle of persons and victims involved in criminal activity.
Procedural guidance in the pre-trial investigation initiated under Part 3 of Art. 355 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine is carried out by the Office of the Prosecutor General.
Liability in the form of imprisonment for a period of four to eight years is provided for by the current legislation for forcing the performance or non-fulfillment of civil legal obligations.
Department of Strategic Investigations of the National Police of Ukraine
