BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — 19 people were charged Friday for alleged involvement in a nationwide ride hailing and delivery service scheme.
Federal prosecutors believe these people used over 2,000 stolen identities and created fraudulent driver accounts to cheat these services.
Ten of the suspects have been arrested and the remaining nine remain at large.
A majority of the suspects were from Massachusetts, but there were also people from California and Florida.
The defendants from Massachusetts are: Wemerson Dutra Aguiar, 25, formerly of Lynn and Woburn; Priscila Barbosa, 35, of Saugus; Edvaldo Rocha Cabral, 41, of Lowell; Guilherme Da Silveira, 28, of Revere; Flavio Candido Da Silva, 35, of Revere; Bruno Proencio Abreu, 28, of Saugus; Jordano Augusto Lima Guimaraes, 34, of Salem; and Alessandro Felix Da Fonseca, 25, of Revere.
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Two others who were arrested are Clovis Kardekis Placido, 37, of Citrus Heights, CA.; and Altacyr Dias Guimaraes Neto, 34, of Kissimmee, FL.
“They thought it would be an easy way to generate some quick money, but in doing so they potentially compromised public safety by putting people behind the wheel who couldn’t get jobs with these companies on their own,” Joseph Bonavolonta, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Boston office stated.
According to U.S. prosecutors, the suspects allegedly used automated bots and GPS technology to fake drivers' locations to earn them more money through the fraudulent accounts.
All of the suspects are Brazilian citizens.
The scheme ran from January 2019 until at least April of this year.
WBZ NewsRadio's Karyn Regal (@KarynRegal) reports:
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(Photo: Getty Images)