The public prosecutor's office has made serious allegations against a 40-year-old from the Bavarian district of Rhön-Grabfeld: He is said to have operated fake shops on the Internet for over three years and thus swindled over a million euros. According to investigators, more than two thousand orders were received in the fraudulent stores – but the suspect never delivered any goods.
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On May 2nd last year, the handcuffs clicked: After an investigative commission from the Schweinfurt Police Department and the Bavarian Cybercrime Central Office discovered him, officials arrested the suspected fraudster. He was no stranger to them: At the time of his new arrest, the man was only out on probation and is now in custody.
Now the public prosecutor's office is bringing charges. She is sure that she has enough against the 40-year-old to be able to prove his alleged fraud in court. He offered a wide range of products from household appliances to school bags in fake shops with names like “Elektro Ecke”, “mydealz24.net” and “biker-zubehoer.com”, but never intended to deliver orders. Unsuspecting customers who always paid for their orders in advance never saw the goods or their money again.
Orphaned million in the account
As the investigative commission found, there were a total of 2,309 orders with a total loss of 325,000 euros. However, the investigators found additional deposits of over one million euros in the accounts of the fraudulent online businesses, which presumably came from other frauds. However, prosecutors cannot currently clearly assign these funds.
In addition to the charge of commercial fraud in 52 cases – the law provides for a prison sentence of six months to ten years per case – the illegally acquired funds are to be confiscated.
Fake shops have been a common online scam for years. There are various ways to recognize them, as a guide from heise online explains. The BSI is also concerned with detecting fake online shops. If they only offer payment in advance by bank transfer, extreme caution is advised: cheated customers usually cannot reverse these payments. Caution is also advised when making PayPal payments using the “Friends and Family” option.
(cku)