Police officers in Rīga have arrested five accomplices of phone scammers, or money mules, who were about to receive cash that had been defrauded from a 94-year-old lady, police said December 10.
On November 27, the police were on the trail of money mules, or people moving scam money.
This time, the criminals had fooled a 94-year-old resident of the Teika neighborhood. She had believed the story of an unknown caller that the call was from the police and her relative had been involved in a road accident.
Acting on the instructions of the criminals, the woman had already prepared money to hand over to the taxi driver, to be passed on to the money mules according to a scheme devised by the fraudsters.
The State Police arrived at the woman’s house in time.
On that day, November 27, law enforcement officers arrested four money mules involved in the case. On December 3, a fifth money mule was detained.
The detainees are young men, three of them minors. The information available to the police indicates that they engaged in these criminal activities by responding to advertisements on the Telegram website for allegedly easy profit opportunities.
Current information available to the police indicates that the suspects are also likely to be involved in other fraud cases.
The State Police are continuing to clarify the other persons involved.
Criminal proceedings have been initiated in connection with the incident for attempted fraud on a significant scale or by a group of persons by prior agreement. Such an offense is punishable by up to five years’ imprisonment or temporary imprisonment, or probation supervision, or community service, or a fine with or without confiscation of property.
One detainee is remanded in custody, while the others are subject to non-custodial measures.
