Scams

Costa Rica projects to close the year with 80,000 criminal complaints, a lower number than that registered in 2019, which accounted for more than 100,000.

“These sentences should serve as a strong deterrent to anyone seeking to enrich themselves by taking part in similar scams.”

Police said the group was connected to at least six cases of fraud involving corporations and individuals in Costa Rica, Panama, the U.S. and Europe.

Costa Rica National Police launched a holiday season security operation on Friday to safeguard residents who will be collecting or spending money in the coming weeks.

Paul Ronald Toth Jr., 40, of Wintersville, Ohio, was convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and six counts of international money-laundering concealment as part of a sweepstakes scam that targeted elderly U.S. residents from Costa Rican call centers.

Call centers are one of the fastest growing sectors of the Costa Rican economy, but this boom industry has a dark side. Costa Rica was home to a massive telemarketing scam that defrauded thousands of U.S. citizens — most over the age of 55 — of upwards of $20 million. Prosecutors in the Western District of North Carolina have convicted 46 defendants from the United States related to the sweepstakes fraud to date.

The Costa Rican Banking Association (ABC) this week launched a security operation coordinated with Judicial Investigation Police agents and National Police officers, with the goal of reducing theft and fraud that usually spike beginning on Black Friday weekend. The start of Costa Rica's Christmas bonus payments, or aguinaldos, also brings an increase in crime each year.

A dual citizen of the United States and Costa Rica pleaded guilty Monday to a $1.88 million sweepstakes fraud scheme that targeted elderly U.S. residents, according a statement from the U.S. Justice Department.

Arnoldo Alpízar, a communications official with the Red Cross, confirmed to TV's Channel 7 that the Italian man died at approximately 7:30 a.m. at his home in Escazú, southwest of San José, where the Red Cross arrived following an emergency call.

It doesn't matter how many times you have been to Costa Rica, how long you have lived here or how good your Spanish is; chances are you've been overcharged by a taxi more than once. But now, Taxiando, a new phone app, let's you have your own personal taxi meter on your phone.