The woman behind one of the biggest swindle gangs in Colombia

Lina Coca was identified as a notable businesswoman from Manizales, a woman who appreciated the best restaurants in town, who rode in high-end cars, and wore designer clothing and jewelry until her day. capture.

Coca, 33, was arrested last Thursday by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations and Interpol (Dijin), after being accused of being the head of one of the country’s largest fraud gangs responsible for the theft. of more than 5,000 million pesos and with an international impact.

For three years, the police authorities monitored this gang made up of 51 members who worked from call centers or “call centers” in the towns of Manizales, Cali, Bogotá, Pereira, Armenia and Dosquebradas, deceive citizens and carry out fraudulent transactions.

The more than 6,930 complaints from citizens for non-consensual purchases and bank fraud and the documentation of more than 2,240 processes by the Colombian prosecutor’s office led to the capture of Lina Coca, owner of five of the “call centers” where they were transported. these criminal activities and the fifty other members who belonged to the fraud network.

According to the newspaper El Tiempo, the woman, who demonstrated her ability to convince customers from an early age when she started working in a call center where she offered credit cards and wallets to customers of the entities banking, became independent about ten years ago to set up her own business.

Together with Francisco Gallo, a colleague, they set up their own call center, through the relevant legal procedures in order to create a company in front of the Chamber of Commerce from where they offered banking products for two entities with three phones. and two computers in a small office.

In a few months, they opened another branch with employees and in five years, Coca y Gallo, had branches in five capitals and in the municipality of Dosquebradas in Risaralda with the representation of five companies.

El Tiempo also had access to the statements of investigators who assured that with the growth of the company and its services, they had filed fraud complaints against the two partners who were already under the watchful eye of the authorities, who ‘They were trying to establish the growth of the company and the way it operated.

Investigations showed that the couple bought databases, made up of around 5,000 clients, for amounts between 20 and 30 million pesos from officials who were in banking entities, with which the citizens’ scam was carried out by offering benefits and packages for their “excellent behavior”.

Likewise, the network had members who were responsible for training the delegates to make the calls, which were edited and in which they tricked the message to make it appear that customers accepted the offer to buy one of the calls. services offered, which was recharged to the user’s credit card via fictitious network companies, the investigator told El Tiempo.

After that, users ended up paying for services for amounts between half a million pesos and one and a half million which were fake and ended up being reported to the banks who demonstrated with the edited record that these services had been purchased.

With the evidence gathered by the authorities, it was possible to capture those responsible for this crime who were charged with the crimes of non-consensual transfer of assets, conspiracy to commit a crime for the purpose of personal data breach and mass fraud whereby they will have to pay between 4 and 16 years in prison.

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