A 56-year-old woman from Tournai was sentenced on Tuesday to two years’ in prison without parole for fraud and computer fraud by the Criminal Court of Furnes.
Authorities were initially alerted by a spate of similar fraud cases in West Flanders which took place through Marketplace, platform used to sell-goods.
The fraudsters would quickly accept the asking price on Marketplace and claim that the delivery service GLS would come to collect the items.
They would then send a fake email purporting to be from GLS, asking the victims to click on a link and provide certain details. The victims were subsequently contacted via WhatsApp and instructed to carry out certain transactions using their bank cards. The fraudsters were thus able, for example, to make purchases using their victims’ accounts.
The defendants were not themselves involved in creating fake accounts, but they had, amongst other things, made their bank accounts, telephone numbers, IP addresses or delivery addresses available.
The 56-year-old woman from Tournai is said to have been drawn into these scams by someone she fell in love with online. The judge, however, found that she was indeed aware of the group’s activities and found her guilty of around ten counts of fraud.
In addition to a two-year prison sentence, she faces the confiscation of assets worth €10,000 and must pay €35,000 in damages.
A woman in her seventies was also involved in the scheme. Faced with serious debts, she searched online for ways to get hold of money quickly. At the gang’s request, she is alleged to have purchased a large number of Paysafecard vouchers and withdrawn thousands of euros.
The defence, however, sought an acquittal on the grounds that she had not knowingly taken part in the offences. She was acquitted of the fraud charges but was given a ten-month suspended prison sentence for money laundering.
