Three of the four arrested are Portuguese nationals.
According to authorities the suspects used fake data to subtract money from the accounts of dozens of people, and all will be held in custody pending trial.
In a separate incident, last month PJ police arrested another four men in connection with counterfeit credit cards, aggravated fraud and unlawful access to computers.
The arrests came following a five-month investigation and culminated in the seizure of a number of objects related to criminal activity. So far the investigation has revealed the fraudulent use of 540 credit and debit cards, with fake data, which totalled a loss of over €108,000.
The modus operandi used by the detainees, who are Eastern Europeans and aged 27 to 42, was the use of counterfeit bank cards with personal details of third parties, which they used in the service stations in and around Lisbon, acquiring mainly tobacco, perfume and spirits.
However, figures sent to The Portugal News from the GNR police force indicate that the overall number of crimes involving fraud logged by that force last year fell by four percent in comparison to 2013.
Computer crime was the exception to the general rule, as were scams to acquire food, beverages and services.
Falling under the category of ‘crimes against property’, a total of 5,134 fraudulent crimes were registered by the GNR in 2014; down 213 cases on the 5,347 crimes logged the year before.
Insurance and work or employment fraud were the two areas where the biggest drops in cases were noted, down by 44.4 percent and 23.2 percent respectively last year, in comparison to 12 months earlier.
The number of crimes involving breach of trust and bank fraud fell by 6.2 percent and 2.6 percent respectively, while incidents falling under the category of ‘other scams’ also dropped by seven percent.
But, two specific areas of fraudulent activity did register a rise last year, in comparison to the year before, theses being computer and communications fraud and scams to obtain food, beverages and services.
Crime in the latter category grew slightly, by 2.9 percent, with the GNR registering 141 cases last year.
But it was computer fraud that showed the most significant growth on the GNR’s figures from 2013, being up by 102 cases to 680 crimes reported in 2014, or a rise of 17.6 percent.
Crime prevention expert and founder of the Safe Communities Portugal association David Thomas told The Portugal News the association is “in fact considerably expanding our advisory service on computer fraud” due to a growing number of enquiries of that nature.
The former Interpol and UN consultant said that he was “not at all surprised” by the GNR’s figures.
“Safe Communities Portugal regularly receives information on on-line frauds, with those in the banking, telecommunications, retail, dating and travel industries being the most common in Portugal” he explains, adding: “Often it is too late and people have been tricked through various scams into losing thousands of euros.”
One of the most common types of attacks, he says, is phishing emails, which ask users to provide personal data, enabling the cybercriminal to carryout fraud.
Mr. Thomas says he knows of cases where people have “passed such information, resulting in one case a loss of over €20,000.” “Cybercriminals play on the most vulnerable, using realistic scenarios to commit these scams. We have specific advice on this subject”, he explains.
David Thomas also warns that as Portugal approaches the summer months, “the travel industry becomes more vulnerable, in the Algarve particularly”, with regards to on-line holiday villa scams.
“Another vulnerable area is Romance Fraud, given the high percentage of those using on-line dating in Portugal. In these matters we liaise closely with the Judicial Police (PJ) and have held joint seminars, with more planned to create awareness together with advice concerning preventative steps”, he added.
Safe Communities Portugal quotes a recent survey by the European Barometer, which indicates that the low use of the internet and lack of awareness of threats could make Portugal more vulnerable compared with other European countries.
“For instance, although internet use is at 56 percent is one of the lowest in Europe, over half [of users] feel they are not well informed of the risks posed – one of the highest. Although some 82 percent of users feel able to protect themselves against cybercrime, alarmingly only 50 percent of users install anti-virus software. In the survey some 12 percent of respondents admitted to being a victim of actual on line fraud and further nine percent of banking fraud”, David Thomas concludes.
Kurt Pardon, IT expert and technical director of the Algarve Computer Centre said there are several ways of preventing computers from being targeted by scammers and malicious software (malware).
“Make sure you have anti-virus and anti-spyware software installed on your computer, keep them updated, and run a full system scan on a regular basis. Keep your computer operating system up to date and your firewall turned on. Use strong passwords for secure sites. These should include eight or more characters with random numbers, and change your passwords every six months”, he advises.
Mr. Pardon further stresses “If you download anything from the Internet such as music, movies, or pictures, make sure you do so only from trusted websites. Downloads can be infected with spyware attached to the file.”
Signs of spyware, he elaborates, include “frequent pop up ads, unexpected icons on your desktop, random error messages or sluggish computer performance are all signs of a malware infection.
“And be careful when using public computers to perform any type of personal transactions. Just logging into a Website may give away passwords and other private information if spyware has been installed on that computer.”
In related news, last year the GNR also took note of 628 cases of elderly people being swindled, which was down on the last available figures, from 2012.
However, in 2012 the GNR registered 669 cases of victims over the age of 65 being duped out of their savings or valuable possessions, which was practically double numbers from 2011.
In a statement the force stressed: “The GNR, through the Senior Citizens’ Safety Centre, has rolled out various awareness-raising actions and warnings among citizens about this type of crime.”