The National Police have dismantled a criminal organization, based in Girona and Lloret de Mar, which was dedicated to defrauding its victims through WhatsApp, posing as their children requesting large amounts of money urgently. The amount defrauded from each victim ranges between 2,500 and 3,000 euros.
The police began the investigation after receiving several complaints, from all over Spain, in which the victims claimed to have suffered a scam.
The modus operandi that the organization followed was always the same. First they carried out a massive sending of messages to mobile phones of possible victims.
In these messages, the scammer posed as the son of the recipient (victim) indicating that his phone had broken and asking if he could write to another phone number. The new number was a fraudulent one used by the organization.
Once the victim answered the alleged son, the latter requested money using various excuses. But in all the requests, the “urgent need” to settle a debt of between 2,500 and 3,000 euros was indicated. They requested the money through installment payments in order to avoid raising suspicions.
The alleged scammer indicated that he could not speak on the phone and could only answer via Whatsapp, since the phone call would reveal the scam. The organization distributed the money in different bank accounts in order to eliminate the trace and not be identified.
Finally, the agents found the perpetrators, most of them in the municipality of Lloret de Mar. A total of ten people were arrested, including the head of the organization, who was in charge of recruiting young people between the ages of 20 and 30 to carry carry out the scams or receive the scammed money from the victim in exchange for financial compensation from the criminal organization.
The investigation is still open and the National Police does not rule out new arrests.
