The sophisticated software installed in at least 8 gas stations across the country (investigations continue and it’s expected that more will be discovered) offered all the “comforts” for fraud, cleverly hidden behind an application that resembled the well-known computer game – the familiar solitaire!
As revealed in the video posted by the Greek Police on social media, during the dismantling of an international criminal organization that adulterated fuel, the software user would enter the solitaire environment and with a special code, the playing cards would transform into… pumps corresponding to the actual gas station pumps.
Fuel smuggling: How they controlled each pump’s “behavior”
From there, the user could individually select each pump to determine how it would… “behave.” With the press of a button, they could set the percentage at which the specific pump would “steal,” whether to issue a receipt or not, or whether to issue a pre-dated receipt copied from a previous customer.
Additionally, the software had the ability to manipulate the visible number of liters in each station’s inventory, creating a false picture for regulatory inspectors.
According to police sources, it’s estimated that over approximately 8 months, more than 30,000 drivers were deceived and defrauded, with over 1 million liters of illegal and dangerous fuel being distributed.
