Police detain suspects in €700,000 Artists' Association scam
Police detained two men on Monday suspected of involvement in the theft of €700,000 from the Estonian Artists' Association.
Last week, news emerged that the Estonian Artists' Association had lost €700,000 through a phone scam. On Wednesday, the Police and Border Guard Board (PPA) announced that on May 25 in Maardu, it detained a 22-year-old Lithuanian national and a 21-year-old Estonian national suspected of participating in fraud connected to the Estonian Artists' Association.
According to the information gathered so far, the scheme began on May 7, when the association's accountant was contacted by a person posing as an Omniva employee. The employee was told that a registered letter had arrived and that identity verification using PIN codes was required to receive it.
This was followed by calls supposedly from the bank and the police, during which the victim was convinced they had fallen victim to a cyberattack and had been enlisted in a secret police operation to catch the fraudsters.
The victim remained under the scammers' influence for an extended period, during which the criminals were given access to a computer, bank accounts, and bank cards. The total damage to the association amounts to nearly €700,000, most of which was transferred to accounts abroad.
The two detained men have been charged with computer fraud committed as part of a group.
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Editor: Märten Hallismaa, Argo Ideon
