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Bulgarian police arrest alleged phone fraudsters

Fri, Nov 19 2010 12:02 CET

byThe Sofia Echo staff

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Bulgarian police arrest alleged phone fraudsters

Photo: Clive Leviev-Sawyer

Bulgarian police arrested three people, one of them a Serbian married to a Bulgarian woman, in a special operation against alleged phone fraudsters, Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov said on November 19 2010, Bulgarian National Television said.
 
Phone scams have been a recurring problem in Bulgaria, with con artists telephoning intended victims – frequently elderly people – to get them to bring money because of a supposed family emergency.
 
The police operation was codenamed Vaccine because in the case of the alleged perpetrators arrested on November 18, the scam involved claiming that a relative of the person being called was in urgent need of a costly vaccine against swine flu.
 
The operation was carried out by the regional directorates of the Interior Ministry in Veliko Turnovo, Turgovishte and Blagoevgrad.
 
Of those taken into custody, two were brothers. Police confiscated a number of mobile phones and SIM cards.
 
The alleged fraudsters travelled the country, with the Blagoevgrad-based participant serving as a "mule" who used his taxi to collect the money, Tsvetanov said. The person arrested in Blagoevgrad was a Serbian married to a Bulgarian woman, the minister said.
 
Tsvetanov urged people not to trust strangers who called them claiming that a relative was in trouble.

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