Naples: Operations center for online scams discovered, 27-year-old reported

We are in the heart of the historic Sanità district and the Carabinieri of the Napoli Stella station are ready for the blitz. In the cobblestoned alley there is a ruined building. The structure is uninhabited but on that terrace the carabinieri have noticed a suspicious coming and going of young people in recent days. You might think it was a drug trafficking but The raid allows us to identify premises set up as a real operations center for online scams. A laptop and 5 smartphones are seized and what at first sight appears to be of little importance actually hides something quite different. The PC – through web applications – is directly connected to smartphones that churn out thousands of fraudulent links and then send hundreds and hundreds of SMS messages.

“Dear customer, your card is being blocked. To avoid suspension, update your data. Log in.” This is one of the messages that the unsuspecting victim receives, led to click on what appears to be the link to the website of their credit institution. It also happens that the text message is maliciously inserted into the history of messages actually already received from their credit institution. It is all part of the scam and the victim, having entered personal data in the mandatory fields of the bait site, ends up being tricked. From the first investigations the Carabinieri managed to document 5 scams already committed for a total amount of 10 thousand Euros and to foil 3 of them. The searches also allowed them to seize 44 “virgin” SIM cards. A 27-year-old was reported but the carabinieri investigations continue to reconstruct the complex story.

The appeal of the Carabinieri of the Provincial Command of Naples

"The scam techniques are increasingly insidious and complex, do not trust, do not communicate your personal data in calls with strangers or SMS received from unknown subjects. Contact your credit institutions, contact your family members and reach the nearest Carabinieri Station as soon as possible".