Two Antwerp residents (20) had to answer for phishing. The public prosecutor’s office in Mechelen called them recruiters from a gang that sent out emails in the name of Telenet and thus stole money from victims. Prison sentences of ten months were sought.
It was Telenet that sounded the phishing alarm in March 2020. They had learned of several fake emails sent out in their name. In those e-mails they were asked to transfer money. It was about phishing. According to those false emails, the money had to be transferred to Belgian account numbers. Its two owners could be identified. These were so-called money mules. One of them stood before the judge.
The 26-year-old was arrested at the time and originally denied his involvement. He said that his bank card had been stolen. On the basis of further investigation, the two twenty year olds eventually came into the sights of the police. Shortly before and after the fact, their IP address was used to log into the account number of the 26-year-old. “It is striking that both are known for phishing and committed these offenses together at the time,” the prosecutor in Mechelen said.
The men in their twenties were sentenced to 10 months in prison. They stubbornly denied the facts throughout the investigation and did so at the hearing. One of their lawyers asked for an acquittal across the board. The 26-year-old was the only one to confess and cooperate with the investigation. He admitted that after a message on Snapchat, he had arranged with some men to hand over his bank card.