The Harju County Court remanded the pair, a 27-year-old Belarusian national and a 20-year-old Ukrainian national, for allegedly aiding the operation of the scheme, which saw thousands of calls made from inside Estonia.

Jelena Mirošnitšenko, unit leader with the PPA North Prefecture's serious crimes division, said evidence gathered so far indicates the 27-year-old Belarusian citizen was the next link in a fraud scheme connected to a SIM box uncovered in Tallinn last month.

This individual's role was allegedly to provide phone scammers with the technical capabilities of making fraudulent calls. The Ukrainian suspect had allegedly operated the SIM box device and had been apprehended first.

"In mid-April, we detained a 20-year-old Ukrainian woman who was operating the SIM box device and moving it from one rental apartment to another. As the investigation went on, we identified a 27-year-old Belarusian citizen who, according to preliminary information, helped set up the technical side of the scheme. Criminal police detained the man as a suspect in mid-May," Mirošnitšenko explained.

The suspicion finds the Belarusian man had brought the SIM box device to Estonia, hooked it up to the internet connection in a rented property, and configured it for operations based on instructions he received.

"In addition, the man's tasks included purchasing a laptop, enabling remote access to it, and supplying the device administrator with SIM cards. This activity enabled phone scammers to make around 3,000 calls to people in Estonia via the SIM box," Mirošnitšenko went on.

Mirošnitšenko added the evidence collected so far also suggests that the 27-year-old man may have acted as a money mule within Estonia. In the course of conducting a search, investigators found cash and 10 destroyed bank cards in the suspect's possession. These may belong to victims of the scam.

The criminal investigation will determine whether and how many additional cases the man may be connected to, how many victims there are, and what his overall role in the fraud scheme may have been.

The PPA also identified a 20-year-old Ukrainian man suspected of acting as a money mule in the same fraud scheme during the same investigation.

"According to preliminary information, the 20-year-old male was effectively one end of a fraud chain. His role was to collect cash and bank cards from victims' homes and to withdraw money from ATMs using victims' funds. We detained the man as a suspect on May 25 and found 12 bank cards in his possession which, according to current information, belong to the victims of scam calls," Mirošnitšenko added.

Based on current information, this individual had been active in the operations in Estonia since March, while police have so far identified four cases where there are grounds to suspect his involvement, involving a total loss of around €20,000.

The operation involved scammers calling victims while posing as representatives of government agencies, mobile operators, the police or banks, claiming suspicious transactions had been spotted on the victims' accounts, that loans were being taken out in their names, or that their personal data had fallen into the hands of fraudsters.

To prevent financial losses, the scammers instructed victims to complete a fake security procedure, which involved confirming actions via the Smart-ID or Mobile-ID authenticator apps, granting remote access to their devices, handing over bank cards, or making bank transfers. The scammers' aim was to gain access to victims' bank accounts, apply for loans in their names, carry out transfers from their accounts, or withdraw cash.

The Prosecutor's Office requested that Harju County Court remand the suspects in custody, arguing that if released, the individuals might evade the proceedings and reoffend. Harju County Court agreed with the prosecution's arguments and remanded them in custody for two months.

A SIM box, as its name suggests, houses multiple SIM cards and connects them to a Voice-over-IP (VoIP) gateway or mobile network; this means an international VoIP call can appear to be from a local cellular network. In other words, to the local telecom network and the receiver, the international call looks like and registers as a standard domestic call from inside Estonia. Previously, scam calls from international numbers had been easier to ignore.

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