In expensive cars, luxury home renovations, and land purchases, the leaders “invested” the money they had taken from unsuspecting citizens. criminal organization specializing in electronic fraud and they recently got into the “network” of EL.AS.

At least as of early November 2021, gang members use as a center of action of buildings in the Zevgolati area in Corinthset up a business call center through which they made hundreds of calls every day throughout the country, managing through their actions to receive amounts that, according to EL.AS., they are approaching 2,000,000 euros.

As leaders of the organization two brothers appear who used the names as an alias Patapios Kalivas and Akis Kalivas. According to the case file, the two men had expensive tastes, as the case file shows that with the money they earned they bought expensive cars, refurbished their homes and invested in new activities, such as renting parking spaces in the Exarchia area or in opening of entertainment centers.

Organization structure

Working method

Gang members well versed in technology were prominent citizens thereby giving content to the character they played, convincing themselves of their worth, sending photos of fake IDs, stamps, promotional cards and invoicesthat have been previously processed.

The tentative scenarios they used were to pretend:

• sellers of vehicles or items at particularly low prices to create an impression of a favorable market,
• buyers and, having found recent advertisements of all kinds, under the pretext of immediate purchase and immediate payment, convinced their intended victims, and
• customers in hotel divisions or other businesses where they have used the ploy of a large order or extended booking by pretending to pay immediately upfront to pique the interest of their victims.

After the initial approach they used three methodologies to extract money:

– In cases of purchase and sale of vehiclesthey persuaded their victims to pay upfront as a “down payment” and then, under the pretense of tax and accounting considerations, requested a larger amount, allegedly offering a better price due to a misunderstanding.

If the victims did not suspect anything, they would come up with a sophisticated ploy with the alleged transfer of money on their part for the convenience of the buyer, then withdraw the money from his bank account and send him the alleged money transfer receipt from another banking institution. Thus, the buyer, believing that the transfer would take place in a few days, proceeded on his part to pay the money, which, as he thought, had been previously credited to him.

– They used various tricks to extract information about online banking. and accessing their victims’ online bank accounts. Since these tricks were not always successful, they opened up another way to extract information about online banking applications from their victims through an automated password recovery and one-time use process.

– They prepared and sent specially designed text messages (SMS) to their potential victims.which appeared to originate from their bank and contained a hyperlink that led to a suitably configured environment that mimics the bank’s original website, where they were prompted to log in by entering a username and password (password).

By filling in their e-banking login details, members of the organization got direct access to their accounts and immediately started transferring funds.

In addition, in order to transfer the money they extorted from their victims, they used bank accounts that they acquired with rewards from people in need of money, the so-called money mules, with their commission from 200 to 500 euros. At the same time, through account holders, they ensured that the maximum withdrawal limits set by banking institutions were activated so that each account could be used to the maximum extent.

Additionally, after the completion of the operation, the members of the organization informed the above beneficiaries about the accounts used, report the loss or theft of a bank card account related.

Also in cases where they illegally gained access to the victim’s account, which had no money, made it a “way station” for transferring money that came from other online scammers.

Upon completion of the withdrawal-withdrawal of funds from their alleged victims, they informed the participants who were instructed to withdraw money from ATMs. and immediately made a seizure, taking protective measures (masks, hoods, etc.).

Protection measures and code names

The organization took special protective measures so that its activities were not disclosed by the police.

In particular, the gang members remained anonymous. through fake accounts on various social networks and web applicationsbut to communicate with their victims, as well as to communicate between them used exclusively “business” connections (Ghostnumbers) issued to third parties or foreign citizens (front persons), as well as online messaging applications.

It is worth noting that, as part of the protection measures taken by the organization, in order not to disclose their activities, they communicated in encrypted words – phrases and a characteristic dialect, while, as it turned out, they used 48 mobile devices and 153 telephone connections.

The codenames they used while communicating were as follows:Blue” or “Alpha Beer” I meant Alfa Bank account card, “green”, “Panathinaikos” or “ever” I meant the account card of the National Bank, “yellow” or “banana” meant the Piraeus card account, “red” or “eurovision” it was a Eurobank account card, “used” meant a card account that was reused, “patches” were beneficiaries of payment cards, “Dane” there were phone numbers to enter, “b” meant Vodafone connection number, “k” or “green” there were contact numbers of Cosmote, “things” meant cards, accounts or communications and “love” it was money.

“The damage does not exceed 2 million euros”

For the occasion they were placed speaking before cathimerini.grLawyers for the two defendants, Mr Ioannis Glikas and Mr Dimitris Beldekos, told K that this is a complex and lengthy case involving many defendants and more than 200 victims.

“However, we believe that a careful study of the transfer will reveal the real extent of the case and, above all, the question of the alleged damage, which is by no means in the order of 2,000,000 euros, as claimed by EL.AS.” they are over