Authorities apprehend three men for allegedly scamming and hacking via social networks

Santiago de los Caballeros – March 29, 2024.After a quick investigation and intelligence work, three men were apprehended after defrauding a citizen resident of the municipality above with 75,000 pesos by swindling and hacking him via the social network and messaging application WhatsApp.

The criminals duped the victim by pretending to be a relative with hacked accounts to ask him to send money for the alleged tax payment to import basic necessities from abroad.

The detainees are Juan Carlos Santos, Eddy de Jesús Pérez Disla, and Luis Alfredo Acevedo Rodríguez. All are of legal age and residents of the municipality of Navarrete.

The apprehension was carried out by agents of investigations on duty in the San Jose De Las Matas municipality, together with members on duty in the province of Puerto Plata.

According to the police report, the criminals contacted the complainant via Facebook, pretending to be a cousin, telling him he had sent two tanks and a box of goods abroad.

However, the criminals communicated via WhatsApp, stating that they were Customs employees who were supposed to deposit 40,000 pesos via a remittance company as a payment of taxes to receive the shipment.

The report goes on to narrate that the victim managed to communicate with his cousin. After having made a second deposit of 35,000 pesos, the criminals asked him for the complementary. When the relative expressed to him what had happened, the relative replied that he had just been the victim of a scam, so he immediately proceeded to file a complaint.

In that sense, the acting agents could identify the criminals through timely investigations, communicate with the remittance company to explain what happened, and recover the last deposit.

The capture of the criminals took place in the municipality of La Isabela, Puerto Plata province when they were being transported in a gray Hyundai Sonata model, license plate A973209; when searched, 700 pesos and a cell phone from Carlos Santos and 27,000 pesos from Acevedo Rodríguez. They also seized three other cell phones, a hooka, and the sum of 304,100 pesos in cash in a drawer of the vehicle.

The criminals, along with the money and the car, are in the possession of the Public Prosecutor’s Office for the corresponding legal purposes.