The Civil Guard of Huesca has arrested 14 people and investigated another 15 for their alleged involvement in various crimes of fraud on the Internet, posing as bank operators, hiring false apartments for vacations or through “sextortion” of people from whom they obtained previously personal data in contact networks.
As reported this Thursday by the Armed Institute, the arrests and charges have been carried out in various Catalan towns as a result of an investigation launched into complaints filed by sixteen people from different towns in the province of Huesca who stated they had been victims of these hoaxes, with economic damages ranging between 400 and 65,000 euros.
Although all the interventions were carried out within the framework of the so-called Operation Plancat, most of the detainees or investigated, who defrauded their victims a total of 110,000 euros, were not related to each other, for which reason they are not charged. a crime of criminal organization.
One of the crimes most used by these scammers consisted of sending text messages to their victims on behalf of various banking entities to report alleged unauthorized bank movements (Smishing) in order to cause them uncertainty.
Fearing that they would be scammed, some of the victims accessed a link that gave them access to a portal that pretended to be from their bank, and once they entered their access data and passwords to cancel the alleged unauthorized movements, the scammers took advantage to make immediate cash transfers or withdrawals at ATMs.
Given that not all the people who received the messages made the password changes, to give the scam greater credibility, the potential victims received a phone call through a number that pretended to be that of their banking entities.
During the call, the perpetrators gained the trust of the victims and asked them for a code received through text messages that, according to the supposed operator, was to deny the movements, but which, in reality, were to accept the fraudulent transactions.
Another of the methods used to continue with the deception was “sextortion”, consisting of collecting personal and publicly accessible information on social networks from people chosen as future victims and subsequently contacting them with the intention of gaining their trust.
After long conversations, the scammers collected more personal information or intimate photographs, and later threatened to make them public if they did not give them money in exchange, on some occasions charging up to 15,000 euros from one of the victims.
Likewise, in another of the scams investigated, it was found that some of those arrested and investigated had published false advertisements for housing rentals, taking advantage of designated dates, using Internet pages with advertisements of this type.
With the ads, the cybercriminals were able to receive transfers as a sign of a supposed rental reservation, but the victims, once the time came to start their trips, realized that the houses did not exist and that no person answered the calls they received. they made to be interested in their rent.
The authors of the deceptions, once they obtained the money, to make it difficult to track it, mainly used three methods: buying cryptocurrencies, making changes to foreign currencies or forwarding various amounts to bank accounts abroad.
Once all the data had been collected and the identities of all the alleged perpetrators obtained, last June, the agents of the @Huesca Team traveled to different towns in Catalonia to arrest 14 people and investigate another 15. for the crimes of fraud, usurpation of marital status, discovery and disclosure of secrets, sextortion and money laundering.
Eleven men and three women were arrested, while twelve men and three women were investigated, all aged between 20 and 45 and residing in the towns of Badalona, ??Barcelona, ??Girona, Hospitalet de Llobregat, Lleida , Raimat, Riudellots de la Selva, Sabadell, Santa Coloma de Gramenet, Sant Pere de Ribes and Tárrega.
In addition, one of the detainees and another of those investigated had search, arrest and appearance requests, as well as investigation of address and whereabouts, for other crimes of fraud. After being informed of their judicial situation by those responsible for the investigation, the detainees were released with charges, with the obligation to appear before the judicial authority at the time of being summoned.
