Guardia Civil in Torrevieja and Almoradí have brought a phishing gang to justice. The Internet scam gang was led by four brothers but those arrested included seven men and three women. The gang is charged with 504 counts of fraud as well as being charged with membership of a criminal gang. It is believed the gang defrauded as much as €56,000 from victims.
The investigation began in June of this year following a series of complaints by citizens who had been scammed by the gang. Officers from Torrevieja and Almoradí joined forces to find those responsible for the scam.
In order to convince people to part with their well earned money, the gang used two methods: one known as “smishing”, which is the sending of text messages to mobile phones, and “phishing”, which is the mass sending of emails to various victims. In the messages, the gang included a link that directed the victim to a page that simulated a bank website. These false websites were actually created by the gang in order to steal personal data.
Once the personal data had been obtained fraudulently, the gang then requested new bank cards from the real banks in the name of the injured parties in order to link them to contactless mobile payment services.
Finally, the gang used burner phones – obtained specifically for the purpose of carrying out the scam – and through contactless technology, made withdrawals of the scammed money from ATMs located in various towns of the Valencian Community, the Murcia Region and the Andalusian Autonomous Community.
The leaders of the gang are four brothers of Moroccan nationality. According to police, these brothers led a high standard of living and did not have any known work activities. A woman of Swedish nationality was entrusted with the function of housing the gang leaders to make police investigations more difficult.
Investigators also found out that the gang was in cahoots with workers and the manager of a gambling shop in Almoradí, where staff were offered an illicit commission of 15% of the fraudulent profits if they allowed the gang to extract the victims’ money through the use of the shop’s electronic payment system.
As a result of the investigation, the following arrests were made: five men of Moroccan nationality between 23 and 32 years of age; a 23-year-old woman of Swedish nationality; a 24-year-old man of Venezuelan nationality; a 48-year-old male of Spanish nationality; and two women of Spanish nationality aged 37 and 22. Among those arrested are the four brothers, leaders of the gang.
The four brothers have been sent to prison without bail. The rest have been released with charges.
Among the good seized during the investigation were 17,500 euros in cash, 630 dollars, 17 high-end telephones, 3 cars, a large number of SIM cards, cryptocurrency purchase tickets, various bank cards, documentation that proves money transfers to Morocco, as well as computer equipment.
Investigators suspect that there are more victims affected by the actions of this gang that have not yet formalized their complaint.
The Guardia Civil recommend that when browsing a website where you are asked for personal data – especially data that could be used by criminals – the most important thing to do is look at the URL of the browser’s address bar in order to check that it has the official address of the entity or company. If you have doubts, contact the company or bank directly and find out if the website is legitimate. Be wary of any unsolicited text message or email from a bank, even if it carries the bank logo or a link to what looks like the bank’s website.