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The Guardia di Finanza de Trento discovered and interrupted the fraudulent activity of a gang composed of 5 subjects, from the Sinti ethnic group, specialized in the classic currency exchange scam (the so-called “rip deal”), in which numerous citizens were involved. Italians, from which tens of thousands of euros have been deducted.
The rip-deal is a fraudulent exchange operation, through which gangs of accomplished con artists induce their victims to hand over large sums of money, with the promise of a particularly favorable exchange rate.
Potential victims were selected from those who posted online advertisements (for real estate transactions, sale of vehicles, horses, watches, jewelry, art objects, or business acquisitions). The ingenious mechanism devised contemplated a first phase, of negotiations apparently aimed at the property offered for sale, to then move on to the currency exchange operation and circumvent anti-laundering legislation.
On the occasion of the first meeting, the scammer appeared in a cordial manner, elegantly dressed and aboard a new large-displacement car; after some jokes, in the course of which he was timidly interested in buying the property of the advertisement, he cleverly approached the speech about an exchange or a cash transaction, thus revealing the availability of large-denomination banknotes, showing bribes where only external ones were “genuine”.
Subsequently, having acquired the trust, the unfortunate was invited to an apartment, in the availability of the criminals, the scammer, after receiving the agreed money, with the excuse of going to obtain the sum object of the transaction, disappeared.
A young woman was also almost always present at the meetings, both to build confidence in the victim and with the task of blocking her if she tried to follow the scammer or try to get her money back.
The money thus acquired, in most cases, was immediately “cleaned” in a casino in nearby Slovenia, or used to buy fine watches.
The investigation made it possible to identify the 5 members of the criminal association, mainly linked by family ties, destined for fraud and money laundering, which turned out to belong to two Sinti families rooted in the Friuli area, with criminal interests also in Trentino.
During the operations, numerous searches were carried out, which allowed the seizure of some 130 thousand counterfeit euros, used for scams.
Given that, in the course of the investigations, it was also found that the defendants are all recipients of Citizenship Income, the procedures for the suspension and subsequent revocation of the benefit they unduly enjoyed were initiated.
This operation confirms, once again, that the multidisciplinary and transversal approach, typical of the Guardia di Finanza, allows, not only to effectively protect citizens, but also to effectively combat the most diverse forms of parasitism, especially repugnant, at this difficult time for the country, since access to social benefits, by those who do not have the right, can prevent those who really need them from accessing them.
In this sense, it should be noted that, during the current year, the Trentino Fiamme Gialle have discovered 13 cases of undue perception of Citizen Income, which has allowed to recover a total of 23,235 euros of precious resources, in favor of the community, and preventing more 1,627 euros were paid to subjects who were not entitled to it.
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