Łódź: He robbed on Blik near the police station. He was caught with bundles of cash

On July 17, a policewoman from the Anti-Corruption Department of the Provincial Police Headquarters in Łódź was leaving work and was passing next to the ATM located in the wall of the police building.

Her attention was drawn to nervous behavior of a man standing at the ATM. He was withdrawing money, talking loudly on the phone all the time. During the conversation he requested BLIK codes.

The policewoman became suspicious that the man was probably pays out money from crime. Without waiting long, she immediately informed the officer on duty. Officers from the Criminal Division of the Provincial Police Headquarters rushed to the scene.

The suspicions proved to be correct. The man was arrested and taken to the police station. The 59-year-old had on him cash – over 16 thousand zlotyswhich were secured by officers. The police gathered evidence in this case. It turned out that the man had already extorted money from the injured parties almost 90 thousand zlotys from various ATMs.

Two days later, on July 19, the suspect was charged with two counts of fraud and breaking secure access to accounts. He may face a fine for that. up to 10 years’ imprisonment.

They extort BLIK codes via messenger

The police did not provide details of the procedure, but it is a well-known mechanism. Most often, it looks like this: after hacking into a person’s Facebook account, the criminal sends a message via Messenger messages to friends asking to borrow money using Blikciting an urgent need. Usually, victims agree to this, convinced that they are helping an acquaintance in a difficult situation.

Criminals often operate in groups – some they extort codes over the internet and in a telephone conversation they are passed on by accomplices at an ATM. They can also act alone – then they read previously extorted BLIK codes directly from the phone screen.