The North Holland District Court sentenced six suspects for defrauding the elderly through help desk fraud and babble tricks. The prison sentences range from 32 months in prison to 220 hours of community service. The suspects must also repay the victims some of the money they obtained and laundered through their scams. This was reported by the North Holland District Court in a press statement (1).
In November 2020, police launched an investigation called Pilot. The investigation focused specifically on help desk fraud (2), a type of fraud in which a scammer poses as a trustworthy authority to take money from gullible victims. Officers looked specifically at the period October 2020 through February 2021. Sixteen reports were filed in the case. Police arrested a total of seven suspects.
The victims were elderly men and women. They were contacted by phone by a man posing as an employee of the bank. He told his victims that "suspicious transactions or fraudulent acts" had been performed with their bank accounts. Several times, the scammer told them there was an amount ready to be transferred to South Africa and Nigeria.
To prevent victims from losing their savings, they had to put their bank card, whether cut or not, in an envelope. To this they also had to add their PIN or login information. A colleague of the alleged bank employee would stop by to pick up the envelope. Shortly thereafter, large sums of money were withdrawn from ATMs, or purchases were made at various stores.
The main suspect is a 38-year-old man. He was the one who repeatedly took the initiative to approach potential victims by phone and "deviously" carried out his scams.
"The scams were blatantly committed on an ongoing basis, with the accused not considering the consequences for the victims. The elderly victims were of (advanced) age. For them, the impact consists not only of financial damage, but especially of feelings of insecurity and distrust. The defendant was only guided by his own financial gain," the court wrote in the verdict (3).
Because the man played a leading role, the court imposed a 32-month prison sentence on him, minus the time spent in pretrial detention. Also, the court ruled that the main defendant must pay damages of more than 13,000 euros.
The court imposed prison sentences of 11.5 months, 190 days and 105 days, respectively, minus the days they spent on remand. A 23-year-old suspect received 240 days of juvenile detention, including 117 days on probation. Another accomplice must perform 220 hours of community service. According to the judge, they were all guilty of swindling, money laundering and co-perpetration of fraud and theft. A seventh defendant was acquitted of these offenses.
(1) https://www.rechtspraak.nl/Organisatie-en-contact/Organisatie/Rechtbanken/Rechtbank-Noord-Holland/Nieuws/Paginas/Celstraffen-voor-hoofdverdachten-bankhelpdeskfraude-bejaarde-slachtoffers-.aspx
(2) https://www.vpngids.nl/veilig-internet/cybercrime/wat-is-helpdeskfraude/
(3) https://uitspraken.rechtspraak.nl/details?id=ECLI:NL:RBNHO:2024:1405
