Three arrested as Latvian police bust fraudulent online store

RIGA, Jan 9 (Xinhua) -- Three people were detained as police in Latvia busted a fraudulent online store at the beginning of this year, a spokeswoman for the Latvian State Police said on Tuesday.

Police spokeswoman Samanta Capkovska said that the Riga criminal police had been investigating the allegedly fraudulent operations of Salestorm.eu online store since last year.

The online retailer had been offering various goods at Salestorm.eu but clients were required to pay for their purchases in advance. The goods were never delivered to the buyers and their money was not returned.

In January 2018, the investigation led to the arrest of three suspects involved in the scam, which they organized at Salestorm.eu, a website owned by Larana company, to defraud shoppers of their money. The three men, one of them 51 years old and two 30 years old, already have criminal records.

The suspects are now facing criminal charges for organized fraud and may be jailed for up to five years.

The online store has been shut down and the investigation into the scam is ongoing, the police representative said. Enditem