The Jalisco Prosecutor’s Office (FE) has identified 26,500 telephone numbers belonging to bank customers and potential fraud victims across Mexico, all linked to a fake call center that operated in the Medrano neighborhood of Guadalajara.
The FE said the scammers posed as employees of a banking institution, attempting to convince their targets that unusual activity had been detected in their accounts. To resolve this issue, the criminals encouraged victims to download a mobile app, thus allowing the scammers access to their bank accounts and funds.
While the Prosecutor’s Office has not released further details, this newspaper has learned that the scammers—who said they were from Citibanamex—also had access to the account numbers of their targets. Online speculation suggests that this client information was likely provided by former Citibanamex employees who were recently laid off, or by dishonest individuals still employed by the multinational bank.
On January 14, a raid on the fraudulent call center led to the detention of 20 individuals, with the operation supported by the National Guard and the Mexican Army. Authorities seized 52 cell phones, five laptops and 26 headsets from the property.
To date, a judge has ordered that five of the detainees—three women and two men—remain in preventive detention for one year while the investigation continues. The Jalisco Prosecutor’s Office reports that these five individuals attempted to bribe police officers during the arrest.
The FE has not provided details regarding the legal status of the 15 other detainees from the operation. According to preliminary investigations, some of the arrested individuals stated they had been recruited via Facebook for work in telephone sales of clothing and credit cards.