Three sentenced for stealing 139,000 GEL from commercial bank consumers via a fishing scheme

Three individuals have been sentenced for stealing 139,000 GEL ($48,331/€43,589) from consumers of Bank of Georgia and TBC Bank via a fishing scheme, announced the Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia.

One Georgian and two Turkish citizens disseminated advertisements on Facebook, which enticed users onto pages that resemble the websites of  Georgian commercial banks and asked them to input account information which was then funneled back to the perpetrators, who used the information to funnel money into their own accounts.

The individuals were convicted on charges of unauthorized access to a computer system, unauthorized storage of computer data, unauthorized creation, storage and distribution of computer programme, as well as theft. 

Tbilisi City Court sentenced Turkish citizens M.D. and M.A. eight years in prison and a fine of 40,000 GEL ($13,908/€12,544) for each, while Georgian citizen M.B. was sentenced to five years and six months in prison.

They were detained back in April 2019, the Prosecutor’s Office reports.