Woman Who Committed Travel Scams Is Arrested in Ponta Grossa

The Civil Police of Ponta Grossa, carried out a pre-trial arrest warrant against a 45-year-old woman, owner of a travel agency, investigated for the repeated practice of the crime of stelionato in the form of sale of fraudulent tourist packages.

The investigations indicate that the suspect used the facade of his company to offer travel packages with attractive prices and facilitated conditions for destinations of great national appeal, such as Porto de Galinhas (PE), Gramado (RS) and Rio de Janeiro (RJ). To give a false sense of security and credibility to the negotiations, the investigator falsely claimed to maintain partnerships and operational ties with renowned tourism agencies.

The criminal scheme worked by early capture of values. The defendant demanded payments via PIX or bank transfers, often using third-party bank accounts — including that of her own parent — for the purpose of dispersing the financial flow, hindering judicial blockades and concealing the illicit origin of the resources.

After the transfers, no hotel reservation, issuance of air tickets or contracting of receptive services was carried out. When the scheduled date for boarding approached, the suspicion ceased to communicate or presented evasive justifications.

To date, the police investigation formally counts at least 20 victims and a financial loss estimated at tens of thousands of reais. However, PCPR points out that the consequences borne by the victims far exceed the material losses. The blow caused severe emotional and psychological shocks, as clients planned the scripts months in advance, aligning work vacation periods, organizing family trips with children, parents or partners, and discovering on the eve of the departure that the contracted trips never existed.

Even after the case came to the public and was widely disseminated by the regional media, the investigated granted interviews to news portals categorically maintaining that she had not committed any irregularity and that no coup had occurred, maintaining a position of indifference and mockery in the face of the frustration and harm of the victims and in front of the criminal justice system itself.

Given the concrete gravity of the facts, the criminal reiteration and the need to safeguard public order and the application of criminal law, the police authority, Dr Gabriel Munhoz, represented the preventive detention, promptly deferred by the Judiciary.

The Civil Police of Paraná warns that any citizens who have contracted services with the same company or suspect and have not had their trips made must attend the nearest police station or the 13th Police Subdivision of Ponta Grossa, provided with proof of payment, contracts and recorded conversations, to formalize the complaint and subsidize the investigative procedure.

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