The extortion calls of alleged gangs, seeking money in exchange for protection or to apparently avoid being killed, have been replicated in recent months in Ecuador.
The way they operate is similar: they call the cell phone and identify themselves as members of the Los Choneros gang or the FARC.
The television presenter Luis Antonio Ruiz received a call this Monday afternoon while he was on his program at a station in Guayaquil. And behind the phone was supposedly a gang member.
“You are talking to Yanki from Los Choneros, I have Ben 10 at my right hand, I have Ricardo, the boss Adolfo, Fito Chonero, he is listening to the conversation… I think you have heard all our movements”, is heard in the snippet shared by the presenter.
What to do if you receive a call or messages for extortion purposes?
Ruiz, who received the call while on his radio show, decided to put it on the air for listeners to hear. At the end, the presenter is heard saying that the number is reported to the Police and hangs up.
IT HAPPENED TO ME This afternoon, while I was announcing my radio show @alcierreinfo, I received a call from a guy who said he was a chonero. I put it on the air. THIS IS A LIE, GENTLEMEN. Police intelligence has detected that they are calls made from other countries. You mock them and close pic.twitter.com/5QGkPJMei2
– Luis Antonio Ruiz (@luisantonio_r) March 22, 2022
“I received a call from a subject who said he was a chonero. I put it on the air. This is a lie, gentlemen. Police intelligence has detected that they are calls made from other countries. You mock them and shut down,” she later posted in a message on her Twitter account.
Merchants, retail business owners and communicators have been the target of this type of extortion calls. In other cases, those who call to threaten or intimidate their interlocutors pass themselves off as members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) or any other organization related to illicit activities.
Extortion, a crime that is increasingly channeled through phone calls and messages; Prosecutor’s Office calls to denounce to combat it
According to police figures, in 2021 there were 1,628 cases of digital extortion, a higher statistic than that registered in 2019 and 2020.
What to do if you receive a call or messages for extortion purposes?
Prosecutors report that the first thing is to report the incident to the Prosecutor’s Office, in the La Merced building, located on Córdova and Víctor Manuel Rendón, where there is attention from 08:00 to 17:00.
In the Model Barracks (Avenida de las Américas) is the Flagrante Prosecutor’s Office, which is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Source: Eluniverso
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