Over the last six years, 2,234 people, both nationals and foreigners, have been charged with crimes of cloning cards and stealing information and identities through phishing. Phishing, used to steal money or information of accounts through e-mail or fake Internet pages, made up 72.7% of the cases. The head of the Specialized Prosecutor against High Technology Crimes, John Henry Reynoso Ramirez, stated that before his agency was created February 2013, very few people were convicted for the two types of crimes listed above, since 97% of the processes reached some sort of conciliation with the banks or the victims and there was no prosecution focused on cybercrimes. Some 1,850 people charged for hi-tech crimes and processed by the Specialized Prosecutor over the last eight months are currently in preventive custody and awaiting their judicial processes that could carry sentences of up to 10 years in prison. Another 28 were able to obtain a bail bond.
A total of 67 foreigners belonging to networks that worked in cybercrimes between 2007 and 2013, whose activities affected the local banks were charged with cloning credit cards and 60 were charged with phishing. “Generally speaking, many Haitians, Canadians, Venezuelans and Colombians are arrested here,” said Reynoso.
There are also criminals of other nationalities. On 27 October 2013, two Bulgarians were arrested in Bavaro accused of placing altered keypads and other devices in ATMs in tourist areas in order to get customers’ credit or debit cards PINs with the aim of cloning them and making withdrawals. All told, the scam totaled US$200,000.