Associated Incidents
After the case of fraud in which fake audios attributed to a minister were used to collect money in exchange for jobs came to light, a similar complaint has now come to light in which the criminals used the name of an official of the Departmental Health Service (Sedes) of Potosí.
This was revealed by the Vice Minister of Internal Affairs and Police, Jhonny Aguilera, in an interview with La Revista de la red UNITEL in which he also provided details of the case discovered in Sucre, in which a criminal group used Artificial Intelligence to fake the voice of the Minister of Education, Omar Veliz Ramos, to offer positions.
The criminals "have operated in Potosí, in the city of Tupiza and Villazón, where we have arrested them, and in the center of the department, in the city of Sucre."
In this context, he revealed that "undoubtedly it is not the only place where this type of event has occurred."
He indicated that "recently an authority of the departmental government of Potosí" reported a similar case, although he did not file a complaint with the authorities.
"Although we contacted her, she refused to provide us with information, we are doing proactive research identifying at least three people who falsely using the name of the director of the Sedes of Potosí have also managed to divert money," he said.
"We have identified the people who have provided these names, who have managed to withdraw these monies and of course, we hope that it allows us to contact the victims and thus, together, we can move forward," he said.
Scam
A criminal gang that used artificial intelligence to scam people with the alleged sale of items was dismantled by the Bolivian Police in recent days.
The accused cloned the voice of the Minister of Education to offer positions and so far there are approximately 19 victims.
Aguilera said that this criminal gang used social networks to publish job offers, posing as the head of Human Resources at the Ministry of Education, and when the transaction was about to be completed, they sent the QR and made a call, with the voice of the Minister of Education, Omar Veliz Ramos.
Aguilera observed "the vulnerability of certain systems to the misuse of advanced technology."
These 19 people "had received job offers, accompanying them with a series of evidence such as QR payments that have materialized through the employment of two people who had received only 300 bolivianos to provide their name and thereby open bank accounts."
"They appeared before financial institutions with these people of limited resources," he said.
He pointed out that the criminals "activated 19 cell phones, because each of the phones has to have, as is known, a private account."
"We have found these devices and they have served as evidence to show that they had cloned the voice of the Minister of Education, that they had received the money and that they interacted with the victims from mobile banking applications," he said.
Four people have been arrested and are charged with bribery, criminal association, criminal organization, among other crimes.
According to the estimates released by Aguilera, this gang managed to accumulate approximately Bs 5 million.
Where is the money?
According to Aguilera, "these people who have used Artificial Intelligence and a conglomerate of human beings for this criminal scam, have divided the money precisely among each of the actors who have participated in this scam."
Investigation
Given these indications, the case has another scope. The vice minister explained that "an extension of the investigation was determined for crimes linked not only to scams with multiple victims, but also to money laundering."
"This will allow us to know where the money is," he said.
The agents are investigating two people who have already been identified and who gave their home address in a "generic" manner, that is, the name of the street or the number of the property is not detailed, "which in some way slows down the investigation."
During the investigations it was possible to determine that one of the members of the gang, who is incarcerated in a jail, "had managed to gain access to his cell phone inside his cell, undoubtedly evading security controls."
The suspect was incarcerated in the San Roque prison and is now in Chonchocoro.
"This fact exposes critical failures in protection, in surveillance protocols and supervision within these detention centers. That is why we have initiated immediate actions, including the change of this inmate and obviously what we intend in the future is to strengthen security controls in penitentiary centers," he said.