The National Police have arrested seven people in an operation in which they have dismantled a criminal network that defrauded more than 100,000 euros posing as banks and laundering their earnings by buying cryptocurrencies. In addition, it sold its computer applications to other organizations.
As reported by the Police on Monday, in the operation against this network, among the seven detainees is the supposed leader of the organization, and five searches have been carried out —four in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat (Barcelona) and one in the capital Catalana—, in which numerous mobile phones, computer equipment, cryptocurrency storage devices and 74 marijuana plants have been intervened.
The leader of the network, in addition to directing the now dismantled organization, offered other criminal groups his computer applications specifically designed for the commission of fraud, according to the Police.
The network’s modus operandi consisted of sending massive SMS to potential victims, from all over Spain, alerting them to a security problem in their online banking accounts, with a link that directed them to a fraudulent website created by them, which in its format, text and content almost perfectly simulated that of the bank.
Subsequently, they called the victims by phone, posing as bank employees, to obtain their credentials —such as ID and access passwords—, pretending that they were helping them solve the security problem in their online accounts.
The detainees, with a high degree of specialization, had the knowledge and technical resources to impersonate the telephone and website of a large number of companies, mostly from the banking sector but also from mercantile, energy and parcel services.
With the victims’ data, they took control of their accounts and diverted their money to the organization’s bank accounts, obtaining more than 100,000 euros, which they hid and laundered through the purchase of cryptocurrencies on various platforms.
According to the investigators, the detainees carried out a multitude of cryptocurrency transactions, with no apparent sense, with the sole objective of making it difficult to trace the money and identify those truly responsible for the scams.
In addition, part of the defrauded money was used to pay for the computer equipment and resources, as well as the commissions of the people who provided the bank accounts in which the victims’ money was initially diverted.
According to the Police, the records carried out have also proven that part of the profits were invested in indoor marijuana plantations.
The investigation began as a result of several complaints from victims who stated that unauthorized money transfers had been made from their bank accounts, which allowed agents from the Central Cybercrime Unit of the National Police to get on the trail of this network.
In their investigation, the Police have been able to prove that the network, which had its epicenter of action in L’Hospitalet, temporarily moved to other towns in Spain to act from different geographical points to try to make it difficult to locate them.
