Over the past month, police have carried out large-scale operations across a wide area of Latvia to apprehend individuals involved in phone scams who had received cash from pension-age women.
In August this year, the State Police started to receive numerous applications from senior women in Riga who had been defrauded.
"The victims, having been deceived, handed over cash ranging from EUR 3,500 to EUR 50,000 to persons they did not know, i.e. couriers. This resulted in a loss of approximately €295,950 for 24 residents of Riga," the police said.
At the end of August, this type of phone scam also spread to Latgale and Kurzeme. The police received information from 11 people in Latgale who had been defrauded and suffered losses totaling around €95,000. The police also received information from two women in Liepāja who were defrauded of a total of €13,500.
The scammers lied that they were calling from the police and that a relative of the person they were calling had been involved in an accident. The fraudsters demanded compensation to avoid criminal proceedings. In total, some €407,450 were defrauded in this way.
In connection with these telephone scams, in late August and early September, the State Police arrested a total of four money couriers, from whom some of the scammed money was recovered and confiscated. Criminal proceedings have been initiated in connection with the cases and three of the detained persons have already been remanded in custody.
On August 28, after establishing the location of the money couriers, law enforcement officers of the Latgale Regional Directorate detained two Ukrainian citizens and recovered part of the defrauded money. Another Ukrainian citizen was questioned as a witness. The following day, officers of the Kurzeme Regional Directorate of the State Police, carrying out operational activities, detained another person connected with defrauding Liepāja residents.
The police managed to recover most of the scammed money from this person. The State Police asked the court to impose a detention order on the detained persons, which has already entered into force.
In addition, on September 3 the State Police Riga Region managed to prevent a similar fraud attempt. A Ukrainian citizen born in 2003 was arrested in connection with the case and remanded in custody was requested.
The detained persons do not have a residence permit in Latvia but have entered the country temporarily.
