The ringleaders of the criminal gang ‘Los QR de la Estafa’ swindled more than 7,000 people with the fraudulent sale of tickets for the Daddy Yankee concert in Peru. Pamela Cabanillas (18), Franco Fabricio Patiño Guerrero (21), and Adriana Lucía Urresti Sánchez Moreno (18) absconded with the millionaire sum of US$ 800 thousand. At the same time, thousands of fans were surprised by the news that their tickets were fake.
Colonel Manuel Cruz, head of the Fraud Division of Dirincri, informed that the three implicated fled the country a day before the ‘Big Boss’ show in Peru, presuming that the scandal would explode at any moment.
Around 20 people are involved in this new online scam, mostly young people between 18 and 25 years old, recruited by Cabanillas, Patiño, and Urresti to sell the tickets for resale with the option of earning a percentage of each ticket in exchange.
Currently, the Police have arrested Sebastián Marcelo Espejo North (24) and Carlos Jesús Reyna Huamán (47). Mauricio Eduardo Cano Arevalo (23) and Nicole Katherine Mia Aguilar Montalvo (18) are also wanted.
Thus, many young people started with the offer through ads on social networks such as Facebook, and Instagram, especially TikTok, where influencers were called to promote and recommend the massive sale that ended up harming more than seven thousand people.
The unwary contacted the resellers, and after a conversation in which they were ‘guaranteed’ that the tickets were original, they even taught the victims how to identify a fake ticket so that the transaction would take place and thus seize their money and then disappear.
Colonel Cruz explained that until yesterday they had 104 complaints of fraud, and they could capture several resellers who were in the surroundings of the National Stadium. Their cell phones were seized, and it was found that a single ticket had passed through the code identifier at the door of the stadium 300 times.
“This massive scam was detected only when people wanted to validate the QR code of their tickets and did not pass the control, while other codes led to a vaccination card,” said the police authority.
Interpol alert
After the escape of the ringleaders of ‘Los QR de la Estafa,’ the National Police quickly sent a blue alert to Interpol for their location, capture, and transfer to Peru, as it is feared that this criminal organization may try to do the same in other countries given the reactivation of concerts and shows around the world.
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According to the Peruvian penal code, those involved in this criminal gang could be sentenced to up to 15 years for computer fraud, and criminal gang membership, among others.
It was also indicated that this organization had formed a large fraud network since the beginning of 2022 and began their ‘operations’ in selling tickets for Peru vs. Paraguay, where they scammed a smaller number of people.
But the complaints increased in the last three months, especially before the Coldplay concert. Hundreds of unwary people were also swindled, but the big scam occurred with Daddy Yankee’s tickets since, before the show, thousands of people were looking for a way to get their hands on one of the tickets.
Likewise, the Police have warned that it has also been possible to detect the irregular resale of tickets for Bad Bunny’s concert, to be held in Peru on November 13 and 14. “It was found that 27 tickets have been sold up to 201 times”.