Taking advantage of the data and identity of a Mediaset journalist, whose personal information they had stolen with abusive access to his accounts, they obtained in his name funding for about 100 thousand euros. The gang of cyber criminals was discovered by the Postal and Communications Police of Bologna, who denounced 5 people with allegations, in competition and in various capacities, of abusive access to the computer system, replacement of person and scam.
The main perpetrators of the fraud are a 31 year old from Rome and a 47 year old from Piedmont. Three other people are investigated with them: a 44-year-old resident of Livorno and a 63-year-old resident of Florence, who made available their current accounts on which to receive the sums, and a 63-year-old Neapolitan resident of Rome, who 'lent' his face as an image to be affixed to the journalist's falsified documents. The funding had been obtained from the three financial companies Ing Direct, Findomestic and Agos, who in the light of the investigations did not claim that the victim would take on the debt.
The investigation started in 2019 after the journalist realized that in his name three loans were active (one of 50 thousand and two of 25 thousand euros), which he had never applied for, nor benefited from. He made a complaint to the Postal Police of Bologna who, through telematic investigations, discovered that the sums had first been channeled onto a single banking relationship, then divided into three other current accounts, finally monetized by withdrawals at ATMs or played in betting shops of Rome, Florence and Livorno. The funding had been obtained online using computer copies of the journalist's true identity documents, his falsified paycheck and other personal documentation acquired thanks to abusive access to the victim's accounts. The 'collector' banking relationships, which were also fraudulently registered to the journalist, had been activated through the computerized reproduction of his documents, but with the photo of the 63-year-old resident in Rome on purpose. The man was identified by the police thanks to the use of a special face recognition computer program (SARI). The investigations continued with the analysis of the connections made to carry out the transfers, all located in Rome, and with the comparison between the telephone records of the holders of the current accounts on which the profits and data relating to ATM withdrawals flowed. The investigation was coordinated by the Public Prosecutor Nicola Scalabrini of the cybercrime pool of the Prosecutor of Bologna. The Postal Police recommends that you pay close attention to the protection of your personal data (identity documents, bank details, payment card details), keeping them in password-protected media avoiding their disclosure. In this case it was also the timeliness of the complaint that put the victim away from more serious consequences.