At a press conference held at the PJ headquarters in Lisbon, the director of the Criminal Investigation Department (DIC) of Leiria of the PJ, Avelino Lima, said that the first complaint came in January, with a scam of almost 500 euros, but another scam associated with the investigation amounted to 10 thousand euros", highlighting the "very high values, which, all added up, reach frightening proportions".

"This investigation already has seven attached investigations and we are talking about 40 thousand euros of damage to those victims. Almost two dozen more investigations have already been identified at the PJ alone. All this work will now be complemented with information from other criminal police bodies. There we will be able to have a more concrete dimension and the number of scams will be very high", he stressed.

In the operation disclosed today, the PJ arrested a 38-year-old foreign citizen suspected of the crimes of qualified fraud, criminal association and money laundering, and the individual's wife and daughter were also constituted as defendants. Digital equipment was also seized that allowed thousands of communications to be sent simultaneously, mainly from the Whatsapp application.

"The complexity of these investigations is high, because this is not limited to Portugal. We are talking about organized crime, complex and on a global scale", explained Avelino Lima, who also warned of the importance of victims communicating more quickly with the authorities: "The important thing right now is to report and not wait days. If you make an immediate report, there are possibilities of stopping that financial flow".

The director of the DIC of Leiria also left an alert to the population not to fall for this type of fraudulent scheme and to be more attentive to the necessary care when interacting with strangers in a digital environment, lamenting that the "people's memory seems to be very short" and that they end up falling for the same mistakes.

"We are talking about something that unfortunately we are not able to sustain, because our community is not doing anything in terms of preventive measures and the care that must be taken when dealing with economic environments. Our fellow citizens continue to believe that they will earn money by responding to messages", he said, appealing to the blocking of numbers and communication to the authorities.

Avelino Lima also noted the existence of "another modus operandi of scams that is emerging in great quantity" in Portugal, in which people react to videos or online content to earn a few euros, but which then demand large investments to have access to (non-existent) larger profits, resulting in "scams of astronomical values".

According to the official, the suspect had been in the country since September and obtained his income from this activity. The investigation will continue, seeking to identify possible criminal connections outside the country, and the detainee will be presented today for the first judicial interrogation, for the possible application of coercive measures.

Leia Também: PJ dismantles 'Hello mom, hello dad' scam structure. There is a detainee (Portuguese version)