The National Police has dismantled a criminal network that was blocking the ‘online’ appointment system for immigration procedures through ‘bots’. Using a computer program, they obtained the available dates to sell them afterwards for a price that ranged between 30 and 200 euros, despite the fact that this is a free service. In the operation there are already 69 detainees, seven of them in the province of Alicante, and 25 investigated, including lawyers and managers.
The computer program used had the ability to avoid the ‘captchas’, the security measures of the official website to carry out this procedure. Furthermore, the authors of this scam used VPN to change the IP address automatically. In this way, they ensured that the system did not block their connection due to excessive requests from the same location. Its modus operandi is the same as that used by computer criminals to block tickets to shows that are put up for sale online, for example concerts. What makes this scam more cruel is that it affected many families at risk of social exclusion and who often place much of their hopes in this effort to achieve a decent standard of living.
The investigation, coordinated by agents of the Central Unit of Illegal Immigration Networks and Document Falsities (UCRIF) of the National Police, is directed by the Investigating Court number 8 of Valencia. As confirmed by the authorities, in this operation commercial contracts have been located between the investigated intermediaries and the detainees, in which it was recognized that “they acted on the ‘bot’ as responsible for the file and as owners of the digital resource”.
In other words, these intermediaries are the ones who were in charge of using the VPNs to book the largest number of appointments. “The ‘bot’ detected the moment in which appointments were released in the different provinces and appropriated them by having the data preloaded and being programmed 24 hours a day, controlling the release of appointments, compromising the functional operability of the system.” the National Police said in a statement
The reserved dates were sold to people who wanted to apply for asylum and, given the situation they found themselves in, gave them no other option than to pay to make the appointment. In the document, the authorities point out that these intermediaries, among whom we remember that there are lawyers, managers, advisers and other recruiters, were aware of the computer damage against the official dating website and aware of the corresponding damage they caused to foreigners.
In a first phase of the investigation, the authorities made different statements, “economic-asset analysis of companies and other inquiries that concluded with a first police operation in which four entries and searches were carried out,” indicated the same police in the missive. At that time, a large number of computer effects, various documentation and a total of 206,950 euros in cash were seized. Thanks to the first arrests, four, in Barcelona and Valencia, it was possible to detect the existence of intermediaries.
The second phase of the investigation was carried out in the provinces of Alicante and Cáceres, and two more persons responsible were identified. It was in a municipality in Alicante where an address was found in which “a computer was found turned on that had several browser windows open and connected to the appointment page of the electronic headquarters, at the beginning of the application for immigration procedures. In another window there was a spreadsheet that was modified automatically or remotely â€, they detailed in the statement.
After analyzing the information obtained, a new phase of the investigation began, which resulted in the arrest of 69 people from the criminal organization in the towns of Madrid, Albacete, Alicante, AlmerÃa, Badajoz, Barcelona, ​​Vizcaya, Burgos, Cádiz, Córdoba, the Balearic Islands, Marbella, Murcia, Tarragona, Tenerife, Toledo and Valencia.
“Those arrested are considered presumed responsible for the crimes of belonging to a criminal organization and computer damage. Likewise, there are a total of 25 investigated but not detained in the provinces of Madrid and Cádiz,” concluded the statement from the authorities.
