Preliminary investigation of the criminal proceeding on theft committed by a group by computer means was completed in the Department of Investigation of Cybercrime and High Technology Crime of General Department of Investigation of Particularly Important Cases of the RA Investigative Committee.

In the result of large-scale necessary investigative and evidentiary actions it was found out that 36 year-old resident of Tavush, having the status of a defendant within other criminal proceedings, being in the penitentiary, together with his 38 year-old acquaintance living in Yerevan, organized and committed theft in particularly large amount by means of computer.

So, with the intent to obtain financial means in a criminal way, between August, 2020 and December, 2022 36 year-old man created personal pages under various names on «facebook» social site through which he had a correspondence with several people registered in the same site. Under false pretexts of registering an "Idram" e-wallet in their names, helping their identification and providing bonuses he received their phone numbers, passwords received on their phone numbers from "Idram" payment system, guided the mentioned persons in the process of identifying wallets in the payment system.

Then having the e-wallet data registered and identified in their names, he formulated loan agreements in the name of various people from banks and universal credit organization and by entering computer data without proper authorization, stole money in particularly large amount which was entered to the e-wallets managed by him, as well as bank cards attached to the wallets. Then he transferred the money to the accounts used by him on various gaming sites.

Besides, he reached agreement on committing theft and ways to carry it out with a person not identified yet. Then between February, 2022 and July, 2023, using the necessary passwords received from several citizens through phone calls made via applications «WhatsApp» or «Viber» registered in 21 phone numbers, he entered the e-wallets registered in their names and «Оnline banking» applications of various companies. Then he formulated online loan agreements in the name of these people and by entering computer data without proper authorization stole money confirmed by the agreements, as well as transferred to the mentioned people’s bank accounts factually managed by him and transferred them through e-wallets and "Online banking" applications to the accounts used by him on various gaming sites and bank accounts acquired by him from various people.

He has committed 152 counts of theft by computer means in a similar way and the damage caused to the affected has made 102.213.328 AMD.

Within the framework of the criminal proceeding factual data were obtained that the resident of Tavush cashed a part of the stolen money through his acquaintance, 36 year-old resident of Yerevan.

The latter, realizing 38 year-old man’s actions aimed at theft by computer means, not participating in their realization directly, in order to conceal the other member of the group involved in the committal of the mentioned acts, between January, 2022 and July, 2023 receiving the necessary data related to the amount to be cashed, gaming accounts used for it, cashed from bank cards previously acquired by him or another person 11.558.000 AMD, in total, stolen from 27 persons.

On the base of the obtained facts charge was pressed against the resident of Tavush according to the Point 3 of the Part 3 of the Article 257, against 36 year-old resident of Yerevan – according to the Point 3 of the Part 3 of the Article 46-257 of RA Criminal Code.

Preliminary investigation on their part was completed and the materials of the criminal proceeding with the bill of indictment were sent to the prosecutor.