Associated Incidents
The Police dismantled a criminal gang that, with artificial intelligence, cloned the voice of the Minister of Education, Omar Veliz, to defraud some 19 people with the sale of items, reported this Monday the Vice-Minister of Internal Affairs and Police, Jhonny Aguilera. The gang accumulated Bs 5 million in its crimes.
The members of the organization are accused of fraud, extortion, aggravation for multiple victims, criminal action and criminal organization.
"We have managed to seize the cell phone numbers, there we found the transfers of at least 19 victims, the figures, undoubtedly, vary. 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," said Aguilera in a press conference.
According to the vice minister, the criminal organization was made up of seven people, one of whom operated from the San Roque prison in Chuquisaca.
Likewise, the authority explained that to commit their crimes, they cloned the voice of Minister Omar Véliz, with the help of Artificial Intelligence, with which they captured their victims.
Gang
Initially, they spread messages on social networks, such as Tik Tok and Facebook, offering work spaces. In the messages they used a WhatsApp line as a reference and a person who identified himself as Luis Mendieta claimed to be the director of Human Resources at the Ministry of Education.
In order for people to 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. The prisoner was transferred to the Chonchocoro prison in La Paz.
Meanwhile, Jackelin A.M. and Mariana A.S. recruited homeless people to open bank accounts in exchange for a payment of Bs 300.