WhatsApp Scammers Ordered to Pay Victims €53,000 in Damages

By Netvora Tech News

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Two men from Apeldoorn, convicted of WhatsApp fraud, have been ordered to pay their victims €53,000 in damages. Additionally, they must repay the €20,000 they "earned" through the fraud to the state. This was determined by the Gelderland Court. The men, aged 24 and 25, had targeted often older victims, pretending to be a family member or a child of the victim via WhatsApp. They would tell the victim that their phone had broken and persuade them to transfer money. In many cases, victims made large cash transfers. The fraudsters stayed in a vacation home in Beekbergen with four others between July 1 and July 5, 2021, from where they carried out the scam. The group was part of a Snapchat group with eight others, where they only communicated about the fraud. The police found images of bank and personal data on the men's personal phones linked to various victim complaints. The court ruled that the fraud was organized. "The fraud required communication with victims, as well as access to bank accounts and personal data, and the transferred money needed to be withdrawn from the relevant account as quickly as possible," the court stated. "This required intense cooperation. That cooperation was facilitated by their shared accommodation in the vacation home." Given that the events occurred nearly four years ago, the court decided not to impose unconditional prison sentences, but rather conditional prison sentences. The 24-year-old man was sentenced to a conditional prison term of five months and a work sentence of 240 hours. The 25-year-old man received a conditional prison term of three months and a community service sentence of 140 hours. Shedding Light on the Victims The 24-year-old man must also pay damages to nine victims totaling over €38,000. The 25-year-old man must pay damages to two victims totaling almost €15,000. Finally, the court ordered that the two men have their earnings from the fraud seized. For the 24-year-old man, this amounts to over €11,000, while the 25-year-old man must pay over €8,500.