Police Raid Criminal 'Call Center' in Yerevan for Fraud

Police and Investigative Committee officers conducted a surprise search of a criminal "Call Center" on November 20. The success of the operation was largely dependent on the element of surprise. Information about the criminal "Call Center" had been received earlier by the Department for Combating Cybercrime of the Criminal Police.

According to Hayk Mkrtchyan, Head of the Department for Combating Cybercrime, when processing the received information jointly with officers of the Main Department of Community Police, it was revealed that a group of individuals, by prior agreement, had rented office space in a commercial building in Yerevan's Arabkir administrative district, furnished it as a criminal "Call Center," and were carrying out large-scale computer theft.

To avoid falling into the operational sight of law enforcement agencies, the members of the criminal organization had disguised the premises from the outside, taken security measures, and only then recruited individuals and conducted training courses to master the criminal activity's mechanism. Thus, they had created favorable conditions for the theft of financial funds from citizens located in foreign countries using internet phone calls and remotely accessed computers.

Incidentally, such criminal organizations operating in Armenia are interconnected with other criminal organizations in other states that use the same criminal mechanism, which in turn target citizens of our republic. And stopping the activity of every criminal "Call Center" discovered here means preventing this type of crime, also for our citizens.

The Head of the Department for Combating Cybercrime notes that despite the precautionary measures, as a result of large-scale operational-investigative measures, law enforcement agencies managed to identify the persons involved in the criminal organization, the role assigned to each, the data of the fake platforms they used on the internet, and information about the crypto-asset wallets used for the financial means obtained through criminal means.

The members of the criminal organization also had a clear guide for destroying digital evidence on computers in case of a surprise visit by law enforcement.

Taking this circumstance into account as well, on November 20, officers of the Main Department of Criminal Police and the Investigative Committee conducted a surprise search. And thanks to meticulously planned and skillful actions, the members of the criminal organization did not succeed in destroying the electronic information that was of key evidentiary value for the investigation.

During the search, members of the criminal organization were found, who are citizens of Armenia and other countries, as well as the computer equipment they used.

"Within the scope of the factual data obtained, the Investigative Committee is carrying out corresponding procedural actions to determine the criminal-procedural status of all persons involved in the criminal organization. The Criminal Police, in turn, is actively cooperating with the law enforcement agencies of foreign states to obtain information about the persons who suffered from the actions of the criminal organization.

Incidentally, measures to detect such criminal organizations are ongoing," the Ministry of Internal Affairs reports, urging our citizens to be as vigilant as possible when receiving job offers from organizations engaged in suspicious activities, as participation in the activities of such "Call Centers" leads to criminal liability.