Associated Incidents
With the help of Artificial Intelligence to clone the voice of the Minister of Education, Omar Véliz, and from prison, a criminal organization deceived some 19 people with the sale of items and accumulated more than Bs 5 million in their illicit activities, reported the Vice Minister of Internal Affairs and Police, Jhonny Aguilera.
"We have managed to seize the cell phone numbers, there we found the transfers of at least 19 victims, the figures undoubtedly vary, but today we can say that the four people who are serving preventive detention for the strategy of offering jobs in the name of the Ministry of Education, had at least managed to collect 5 million bolivianos," he revealed at a press conference.
According to Aguilera, the criminal organization was made up of seven people, one of whom was in the San Roque prison, Chuquisaca.
To commit their crimes, they cloned the voice of the Minister of Education, Omar Véliz, with the help of Artificial Intelligence, with which they captured their victims.
Initially, they spread messages on social networks, such as Tik Tok and Facebook, offering work spaces.
They used a WhatsApp line (60302325) as a reference and a person who identified himself as Luis Mendieta claimed to be the director of Human Resources of the Ministry of Education.
So that people would believe the offer, they used the cloned voice of the minister to “call those interested.” In order to complete the contract, “an initial payment of 3,500 bolivianos was requested, which was made through QR.”
“The proof of the delivery of this money for the item was precisely this call that the minister supposedly made,” Aguilera said.
So far, five members of the criminal organization have been identified: Vilma C.C., Luis G.C. and Alfredo Ch. S. (28), the three prisoners, the last two in the San Roque de Chuquisaca prison, in addition to Jackelin A.M. and Mariana A.S.
Alfredo Ch. S. (28) was the one who cloned the minister's voice with a cell phone that he was able to bring into the prison.
Meanwhile, Jackelin A.M. and Mariana A.S. recruited homeless people to open bank accounts in exchange for a payment of Bs 300.
The members of the organization are accused of fraud, extortion, aggravation for multiple victims, criminal action and criminal organization.
After the revelation of the crimes and in a precautionary hearing, Alfredo Ch. S. (28) was transferred to the Chonchocoro prison in La Paz.