Campiglia Marittima: Online scam for 4.400 euros to the detriment of a 70-year-old, two men aged 28 and 52 reported

Among the current phenomena that are attracting the most attention, Online scams are the subject of constant counteraction by the Carabinieri of the Provincial Command of Livorno, within the scope of the intensification of the related services according to the guidelines shared at the Provincial Committee for Public Order and Security at the Prefecture of Livorno. The action is carried out both with a primarily preventive perspective, through constant information meetings held by the Livorno Arma throughout the province, which through a deep action of repression, with investigations aimed at identifying and prosecuting the perpetrators. In this context, the Carabinieri of the Campiglia Marittima Station intervened and, at the conclusion of an investigation, they two alleged perpetrators of a scam against a 70-year-old local man have been identified.

The victim, at the beginning of October last year, she had been attracted by an advertisement for the sale of a tractor on an e-commerce site and had started a conversation via instant messaging with the alleged seller who was pretending to be an employee of a spare parts company in the Livorno area. During the negotiation the two had apparently agreed on the price (4.400 euros) and the victim, convinced of the good faith of the seller and the genuineness of the deal, would have agreed to carry out four transfers at different times in favor of an IBAN that would have been indicated to him, amounting in total to 2.200 euros. The remaining part of the payment would then have been paid upon delivery of the tractor.

After the money was paid, however, the citizen was asked by the so-called seller for a further tranche of money, to which the man, suspicious, did not want to agree. At that point the interlocutor disappeared and became untraceable. Realizing that he had been the victim of a scam, the victim decided to report it by contacting the Carabinieri of Campiglia who started the investigations. By also following the flow of the sum of money, and cross-referencing all the elements collected, they traced the'identity of two men originally from Crotone, aged 28 and 52, with specific criminal records, who were reported to the Judicial Authority of Livorno for fraud in competition.The Carabinieri, in light of yet another scam, draw the attention of citizens to pay maximum attention to particular situations in which they are contacted and/or approached by unknown individuals and suspicious behavior they also reiterate that they will use best practices in relation to the increasingly frequent types of crime arising from links on particularly convenient websites and online purchases, behind which, at times, unscrupulous people are hiding, dedicated to scams and deceptions. During negotiations it is advisable to use direct communication tools, such as telephone calls, which are more easily traceable. compared to simple messages via social networks and verify, even via the web, the real presence of companies or retailers. In case of doubt, you can always contact one of the 27 Carabinieri Stations in the Province of Livorno to express your suspicions and verify any doubts.

The recurrence of different types of scams requires us to recall the precautions and measures that the Carabinieri of Livorno recommend in case of doubts and/or lack of knowledge of the interlocutor from which you are approached for any type of agreement or request in which the request to carry out an operation or a payment emerges, even and especially with means other than the use of cash, in particular the use of electronic payment instruments. In this regard, in the aforementioned cases, As soon as you have suspicions, the advice is to be extremely careful, not to open the door to strangers who show up at private homes, to be wary of appearances and above all to limit your confidence on the Internet.

In this perspective, therefore, always pay maximum attention, but above all turn with confidence to the Carabinieri. in case of suspicion, call 112 to make an immediate report, as well as consult the website Carabinieri.it which illustrates the main types of scams and how to recognize them, since the techniques adopted by scammers, however sneaky and imaginative, have recurring patterns and identifying them is the first step in defending yourself. In case of receiving calls from landline or mobile numbers with prefixes or numbers compatible with the sender, for example from institutional offices or barracks, since currently frequent phenomena of cloning of already assigned numbers, It is good practice to hang up, then close the suspicious conversation and call the number back in order to confirm that you are not dealing with yet another unknown scammer.