

Even worse, Chase Bank said he’d waited too long to report the fraud and wouldn’t reimburse him.Īccording to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) : There were over 172,000 reports of bank fraud in the first 9 months of 2022.įor many victims, all it takes to get scammed is their bank account number and a few other pieces of sensitive information falling into the wrong hands. Over the past year, scammers had siphoned out more than $13,000 from the veteran’s bank account without his knowledge. While the alert sent his heart racing, it was only after combing through past account statements that he realized it was just the tip of the iceberg. Peter Dolce’s nightmare started with a fraud alert for a suspicious $254 purchase. "The motto at the company was: think of yourselves and your families, forget the victims," said Sallum.Can Scammers Access Your Banking With Just Your Account Number? Workers were encouraged to watch the movie and replicate the behaviour of the main character played by Leonardo Di Caprio. There was a "sociopathic atmosphere" at the call centre, which police said mimicked the 2013 blockbuster "The Wolf of Wall Street", based on the memoir of Jordan Belfort, who ended up in prison in the 1990s for defrauding investors out of millions of dollars. Six leaders of the network were arrested to face fraud and money-laundering charges, bank accounts were frozen and several fake websites were taken down. The investigation found the group had been operating for at least four years, affecting thousands of people, many of whom lost their life savings, and making millions in Brazilian reais. "It turns out the new investments also generated losses, creating a snowball." they were encouraged to make new investments in the hope of reversing the loss," police chief Eric Sallum said. The victims' money ended up in company accounts while they were told it had been lost in the market. They were tasked with calling people in Brazil and convincing them to invest in stocks.

In a statement, Brazilian police said a Czech national based in Lisbon had opened a call centre and hired hundreds of struggling Brazilian workers living in the Portuguese capital. LISBON (Reuters) - Brazilian police and the Portuguese branch of Interpol have dismantled a criminal network operating a sham company in Lisbon that defrauded thousands of Brazilians in a scheme inspired by the film "The Wolf of Wall Street". This content was published on Ma18:50 Ma18:50 minutes
