This was revealed in SVT’s Uppdrag review last spring, as in an attention-grabbing program with the help of the hacker’s material was able to show how the fraudsters did in detail when they cheated pensioners out of money day after day.
– Last week, I think we got up to 1.5, 1.6, 1.7 (millions), brother right now we’re fucking Sweden. We are fucking Sweden’s mother, one of the suspected fraudsters was heard to say in a phone call in the program.
The hacker also sent the material to banks and the police, who used it to arrest four people who have been in custody since then.
Three teenagers
It concerns three young men, 19–20 years old, all natives of the Eskilstuna area, and a 29-year-old woman from Gothenburg. On Monday, they were charged with aggravated fraud.
A total of 80 plaintiffs are included in the prosecution from different parts of Sweden. According to the investigation, they have been defrauded of a total of approximately SEK 12 million.
The material that the police gained access to through the hacker constitutes completely unique evidence, says prosecutor Anton Larsson Forsberg to SVT News.
– We can play back the fraud calls themselves, how they went about and I can show how it looked on the screen, he says.
In addition to phone fraud, the hacker could also see how the young men in the league dealt with drugs, assault and extortion.
Great source of income
According to the police, fraud is one of organized crime’s biggest sources of income, and crime has increased over several years. Telephone scams, especially targeting the elderly, are one of the forms that have increased.
In 2023, Swedish police calculated the proceeds of crime for fraud crimes at SEK 7.5 billion. Assessments from, among others, Europol and Swedish Business and Industry indicate, however, that the dark figure is large and that the profits from crime in 2023 may have been almost three times as high
The trial is scheduled to begin on January 20.
Fact: Protect yourself from phone fraud
If someone calls you and you are unsure, end the call. The sooner you cancel the call, the better chance you have of stopping the scammer.
Never identify yourself with a bank ID and never give out codes from a bank box or to a payment card at the request of someone else.
If you receive an SMS with information that you do not recognize, it is probably a fraud. Don’t answer.
Source: The police