By Jo Pugh • 12 July 2023 • 10:03
€100,000 was scammed through text messaging. Credit: Policia Nacional
The members of the highly professional organisation had the knowledge and technical resources to impersonate the telephone and website of a large number of companies, mostly in the banking sector, but also energy and parcel delivery companies. The cyber criminals sent mass SMS messages to victims alerting them to a security problem in their online accounts and encouraging them to resolve it by clicking on a link that redirected them to a fraudulent website created by them.
The criminals then phoned their victims purporting to be bank employees and pretending to be helping them, in order to obtain their credentials and divert funds in favour of the organisation. On the phishing website – which in its format, text and content almost perfectly simulated that of the bank – the victims were asked for the necessary credentials to enter their online banking, such as ID and password.
Once the gang had obtained the customer’s details, they used the ‘vishing’ technique of phoning victims posing as bank employees to make them believe that they were helping them to resolve the supposed security problem with their account.
During this process, they tricked them into giving them the codes included in the text messages they received during the call, which were in fact the confirmation codes needed to overcome the two-factor authentication security systems of the online accounts. In this way they took control of victims bank accounts and diverted the victims’ money to the organisations accounts.
Investigations carried out revealed that part of the profits were invested in indoor marijuana plantations. Finally, the leaders of the criminal organisation hid, diverted and laundered most of the profits through the purchase of crypto-currencies on various platforms or exchanges.
On these crypto-asset exchange platforms, they carried out a multitude of transactions with the sole purpose of making it difficult to trace the money and identify the real perpetrators of the scams.
The investigation began as a result of several complaints from victims who stated that unauthorised money transfers had been made from their bank accounts. Thanks to the investigations carried out by specialised agents of the Central Cybercrime Unit, it was possible to establish the true final destination of the swindled money and detect the patterns that made up the structure of the criminal network.
They offered “crime as a service” to other organisations. Police also detected that on occasions the gang moved temporarily to other parts of the country, in order to operate from different geographical locations to make it difficult to locate them The investigation showed that this was a highly professionalised organisation. Its members had the knowledge and technical resources to impersonate a large number of companies.
Finally, in the execution phase of the operation, the agents arrested seven members of the organisation and located the nerve and operational centre of the network from where they prepared and committed the scams.
As a result of the searches, several laptops were seized whose traffic was masked to avoid being traced, a large number of mobile phones and SIM cards, a multitude of bank cards and “ledger” devices for storing crypto-currencies.
In addition, they located a marijuana plantation and seized 74 plants. On Monday 7 July, seven people were arrested and are awaiting charges. Among the arrests made was that of the leader of the organisation who, in addition to directing the dismantled criminal organisation, offered “crime as a service” tools to other organisations to which he sold computer applications specifically designed for committing scams.
Thank you for taking the time to read this article. Do remember to come back and check The Euro Weekly News website for all your up-to-date local and international news stories and remember, you can also follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
Share this story
Subscribe to our Euro Weekly News alerts to get the latest stories into your inbox!
By signing up, you will create a Euro Weekly News account if you don’t already have one. Review our Privacy Policy for more information about our privacy practices.
Jo Pugh is a journalist based in the Costa Blanca North. Originally from London, she has been involved in journalism and photography for 20 years. She has lived in Spain for 12 years, and is a dedicated and passionate writer.
Your email address will not be published.
Known as the PEOPLE’S PAPER, Euro Weekly News is the leading English language newspaper in Spain. And it’s FREE!
Covering the Costa del Sol, Costa Blanca, Almeria, Axarquia, Mallorca and beyond, EWN supports and inspires the individuals, neighbourhoods, and communities we serve, by delivering news with a social conscience. Whether it’s local news in Spain, UK news or international stories, we are proud to be the voice for the expat communities who now call Spain home.
With around half a million print readers a week and over 1.5 million web views per month, EWN has the biggest readership of any English language newspaper in Spain. The paper prints over 150 news stories a week with many hundreds more on the web – no one else even comes close.
Our publication has won numerous awards over the last 25 years including Best Free Newspaper of the Year (Premios AEEPP), Company of the Year (Costa del Sol Business Awards) and Collaboration with Foreigners honours (Mijas Town Hall). All of this comes at ZERO cost to our readers. All our print and online content always has been and always will be FREE OF CHARGE.
© 2023 EWN Media. No part of this website may be reproduced without written permission from the publishers. All rights reserved. Supported by WP Advisor.
Subscribe to our Euro Weekly News alerts to get the latest stories into your inbox!
By signing up, you will create a Euro Weekly News account if you don’t already have one. Review our Privacy Policy for more information about our privacy practices.
Download our media pack in either English or Spanish.