Opinion (Rogério COPETO / Official GNR): Scams and con artists.
During the period in which I played the Commander of the Territorial Detachment, I had the opportunity to investigate various crimes scams, and I met some fraudsters, and so this article dedicated to scams and con artists.
Rogério COPETO
Lieutenant Colonel of the GNR, Master in Law and Security and Homeland Security Auditor
Head of the Education Division / Command Doctrine and Training
Commit fraud crime "who, with intent to obtain for themselves or third illegitimate enrichment, through error or misunderstanding about facts cunningly provoked, determine others to commit acts that cause you, or cause the other person, financial loss".
The swindling crime as described above belongs to the chapter of the Penal Code dealing with crimes against property in general and shall be punished with imprisonment up to three years or a fine of, It is also punishable attempt, depending on the same complaint and criminal liability is extinguished with the consent of the victim and the accused and provided there has been restoration of illegitimately appropriate thing or full compensation for the damage caused. And if illegitimately appropriate thing is of low value and intended for immediate use and indispensable to the satisfaction of a need agent, the prosecution relies on private prosecution. Safety is a situation where the financial loss is of high value, being the author punished with imprisonment up to five years or a fine of up to 600 days, dealing in this case of aggravated fraud crime.
According to the foregoing is easy to see that most of the fraud crimes never reach high values ​​and so this is a crime that does not allow probation, as a coercive measure, even when the perpetrators are arrested in flagrante delicto, It is applied to less serious, Identity and Residence Term (TIR), which has often resulted in the possibility of its authors continue criminal activity, verifying why the scams of crimes are committed by the same individuals, making this way of life, which it is very difficult to prove, as I had the opportunity to prove, the various swindling crimes investigated.
Of the various fraud offenses that had the opportunity to investigate, some of them were in my memory, such as "fraud of camcorders", which modus operandi It consisted of the sale of a supposed camcorder digital the latest model and after the sale was revealed as a cassette player, purchased by the scammer in the "Chinese of the store", for about € 10, getting them sell for hundreds of euros, always in excellent business premise for the victim, I could not resist such bagatelle.
Another investigation by the fraud of crime that took me some time, It was the "swindle of advertising gifts" whose modus operandi It consisted of the recruitment of small traders, the acquisition of advertising gifts, from pens, caps, umbrella, Keychain, etc, through a vast catalog, may the trader that gifts to advertise your business, offering them to their clients, having also available for owners of grocery stores or small supermarkets, Plastic bags, where the trader could advertise their trade.
All items had prices below market value, ruse necessary to entice the merchant, I should make a payment of half of the goods value at the time of order and the other half received when the remaining goods, that never came to receive, being the merchant mocked the amount paid in the order act of advertising gifts.
The first scammer was repeatedly arrested by GNR, being released soon afterwards, allowing to continue their criminal activity, having had the opportunity to inquire as part of an investigation crime, in Fleet PSP your area, where it stated, that people only bought because they wanted to and because they thought they were doing a "deal of china". But in an attempt to justify their criminal behavior, He forgot that he did was fool people, to show them a digital camcorder and after receiving the money, made delivery to the victim of a closed box, where he was a cassette player, and this way of acting, identical to "swindle of mobile phones", whose victims received a box with a stone or a soap.
But the "scammer of advertising gifts" could bring together all the common features to all con artists, it is to be good-looking and well-spoken, besides being a great "salesman", taking on arrest told, that instead of deceiving people, was dedicated to the honest work of seller, surely would be successful in this profession, because it was an excellent seller, believing that he could sell refrigerators to Eskimos.
However during his criminal activity could circumvent hundreds of small traders North to South, and even after being held in detention mandate compliance and present the Criminal Investigation Judge (JIC), it was released, because despite the many crimes he committed fraud, the JIC was not convinced that it was the life of criminal activity.
If scammers have almost all the same features, They are well-spoken and good-looking, their victims instead, They may be any one of us, having proven that this crime does not distinguish gender, age or social class, nor more or less academic training, getting the scammer cheating to the one who says he is very smart, considering why no one can say "this water will not drink".
Although any one of us could be the victim of a scammer, the elderly are however their preferred target, because of their vulnerabilities, are as age, a little training, increasing when they are, alone or living in isolated locations, meriting so by the GNR special attention, under "Safety in the Elderly Program", GNR military whose every day warn that population, the dangers of opening the door to strangers or even talk to those who do not know, even if it is identified as belonging to the Parish Council, post offices, EDP, Health Center, Social Security, Banking institution, etc, about your life or the neighbors and never let in those people at home, the assumption go do some kind of work, unless it has been previously scheduled and much less to replace the "old notes for new".
This subject has always deserved the attention of the Media and so not seldom had the opportunity to collaborate with several, as responsible for the special GNR programs, which includes the "Safety in the Elderly Program", an example being the article entitled "The other oldest profession in the world: scammer"Authored by journalist Ruth Coelho and published in the 12 September 2010 do DN, the article "Scams to seniors reach one million euros"Authored by journalist Alfredo Teixeira and published in the 17 January 2011 also in DN and the article "Crime Doorstep. Someone ordered a scammer"Authored by journalist Rosa Ramos and published in the 23 January 2012 for I.
All articles indicated above refer to the many and varied modus operandi which are used by fraudsters, It is the limit to imagination, and all end with the usual advices, some of them already mentioned here, and of the consequences of this type of crime for victims, that in addition to material damage and which are the most obvious and visible, there are other psychological consequences, which are invisible and that lead to the most vulnerable victims, such as the elderly, begin to feel a burden to others, because they think they can not take care of themselves, It is therefore, the work that the GNR develops in preventing this type of crime, essential and very important.
