Seven people were arrested in an investigation into a large-scale fraud scheme in Belgium, the local Brussels police reported on Friday.
The seven, together with four other suspects who are still being traced, are alleged to have defrauded at least 300 people with fraudulent online loans, making off with at least €1.2 million. Many of the victims were vulnerable due to their age or lack of knowledge of IT tools.
The investigation began in October 2024 after a bank specialising in online financing filed a civil claim, according to the police.
"The victims, mainly French-speaking, were contacted by telephone by one of the suspects, who pretended to be an employee of the itsme fraud department," the police explained. "That person informed the victim that a foreign mobile phone had recently connected to their itsme app from a city where the victim could not possibly be, and asked them to immediately disconnect the mobile phone in question via a notification that would be sent to itsme."
"When the victim opened the itsme app, he saw that he had indeed received a notification and confirmed it according to the instructions of the person who called him," the police continue.
Through this, the victim unwittingly took out an online loan. These would often range from €2,500 to €5,000 per person, according to the police.
The suspects reportedly used this money to buy mobile phones, which were collected by other members of the gang at collection points to be resold later.
The suspects contacted their victims via a Belgian telephone number that had been registered in the name of another victim, according to the police: "They also used the so-called 'spoofing' technique, whereby the actual call number is replaced by a credible landline number. In some cases, therefore, there is double fraud: the same person can be the victim of both opening an online credit account and taking out a mobile phone subscription, two financial commitments that have been entered into fraudulently."
At the end of April, the Brussels Capital/Ixelles police raided nine addresses in the Brussels-Capital Region, mainly in Ixelles and Auderghem. Seven people were arrested and a kilogram of marijuana was seized.
Two of the seven suspects were placed under arrest. One of the two has since been released on bail. Four suspects are still being sought.
