The Eskilstuna District Court sentences the key individuals to imprisonment for five years and three months, respectively four years and ten months, for gross fraud and attempted gross fraud.
A woman is sentenced to imprisonment for two years and ten months. Another man receives a conditional sentence.
According to the police, the gang has swindled approximately 40 million kronor in six months. The charges concern around 12 million kronor and a total of 73 victims across Sweden.
”Samuraj”
It was in a notable episode of SVT's Uppdrag that the scam was exposed. An anonymous hacker, calling himself Samuraj, had accessed the fraudsters' computers and gathered evidence, which showed in detail how the fraudsters swindled elderly people out of their money.
”The District Court has assessed the hacker's material as reliable in comparison with the extensive other evidence in the case,” says Eirik Jungar, acting judge at Eskilstuna District Court, in a press release.
The gang used a sophisticated criminal setup, where they used a robot to retrieve phone numbers of elderly people and sent them SMS messages stating that they had ordered a product and that they should contact a number if it was incorrect.
When the victims called, they often allowed remote control of their computer and used their bank ID or card, and could empty their account.
”All they had saved”
It concerns three men in their 20s, all from the Eskilstuna area, and a 30-year-old woman from Gothenburg.
”Some of those who were swindled have lost almost all they had saved and planned to live on,” says Chief Judge Kai Koskela in the press release.
All four denied the crimes when the trial began in January, but one of the men has since admitted to large parts during the proceedings, according to prosecutor Anton Larsson Forsberg.
The prosecutor is convinced that the dark figure is large and has stated that the gang may have involved as many as 20 people.
