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Actor Adrian Nartea, from the series “Vlad”, but also singers like Jean de Craiova and Gabriel Dorobanțu woke up with their identity stolen and with no money in their accounts.
A criminal group managed to take away their phone numbers, bank accounts, but also social accounts, from which they demanded certain favors.
In total, 50 people were in this situation and the damage exceeds 100,000 lei. The suspects were caught by DIICOT prosecutors and four of them were arrested Wednesday night.
Adi Nartea, the actor who plays the main character in the series “Vlad”, is one of the victims.
He says that one day he ran out of signal on the phone. Not knowing what was going on, he took his wife’s cell phone and called the phone company with which he had a contract.
Adi Nartea: “They asked me to read that identification number on the SIM card. What was on the card, they did not have in the exchange. In the sense that the serial number did not correspond. Someone called the exchange and pretended to be me and asked for the validation of another blank SIM, on another phone, elsewhere“.
Liviu Arsene, Cyber Threat Specialist: “When another card is detected with another card, the signal is lost, the old card loses the signal. The window of opportunity is how long it takes for the victim to reach an operator to change the card“.
45 minutes. This is how the entire operation lasted in this case. Once they obtained the phone number, the criminals created access to confidential data.
By authenticating in two steps, they managed to change the password in the email, receiving a code generated on the phone.
Liviu Arsene: “You have a copy of the newsletter, of course you have invoices, contracts, personal data in various forms. Having access to the email with all the personal data, CNP, serial, number, I called the call center and said that “I lost my electronic banking password“.
After assigning the identity of the people, they asked the banks to reset the passwords of the bank accounts online.
50 people damaged
Thus they obtained access to the accounts and transferred money, from the accounts of the injured, to the other members of the criminal group.
Adi Nartea: “I was left without access to my bank account, without access to email and without access to social accounts, in addition, transactions were initiated on my card worth around 2,000 euros. They didn’t buy items, they bought coupons they could use later. Through social accounts they made some help posts for social cases and the world felt compelled to donate and there are people who really donated. The imposter practically called friends on the list and privately texted them to give them money. To my dentist, a good friend from Cluj, asking for money to transfer pounds to Revolut, about £ 200, £ 300“.
The thieves have injured 50 people. Among them were artists like Gabriel Dorobanțu and Jean de Craiova, but also Andreea Bălan’s father.
The total damage exceeds 100,000 lei. In this case, DIICOT prosecutors carried out 12 searches in Brașov, Ilfov and Bucharest counties.
After hearings on Wednesday night, four suspects were arrested and three placed under judicial control.
14 suspects were caught
Investigators seized no fewer than 14 suspects who discovered their phone numbers, emails or account login details. And not only from social networks, but also from banks.
In short, the criminals found out about their personal data – name, date of birth, personal numerical code – and asked the companies where the victims had mobile phone subscriptions to change their SIM cards.
With all of this information and unlimited access to the victim’s phone number and email, it’s very easy to change bank account login details, cybersecurity experts say.
Damage of more than 100,000 lei
What the thieves did. It took a lengthy investigation for the police to uncover this cyber scam, showing us once again how important it is to keep personal data out of the reach of the public.
The total damage exceeds 100,000 lei. And in this case, DIICOT prosecutors carried out 12 searches in Brașov, Ilfov and Bucharest counties.
