3 charged for Israeli-French toll call scam
Accused allegedly used auto-dialing device to con people in France into making costly calls
Two Israelis and a French citizen were indicted on Tuesday for running an elaborate phone scam that defrauded people in France out of thousands of dollars.
Israel Vakin, 29, of France, Shmuel Ganon, 23, of Bat Yam, and Jordan Fair Ben Guzi, 24, of Netanya, are accused of conspiring to commit a crime, fraud under aggravating circumstances and other offenses. The scam was apparently exposed in its early stages.
According to the indictment filed by the Tel Aviv District Attorney’s Office, Vaknin acquired an auto-dialing device and cold-called tens of thousands of people in France, playing a recorded message which said they had a package waiting for them and that to retrieve it they would have to call a toll number. Vakin owned the toll number, and profited from each call.
Vaknin reportedly earned a total of over 4,000 euros from the scam and paid the other two, who worked as his accomplices, a monthly salary of NIS 1,400 ($350) each.