The more truthfulness has a story in a more likely, there is that the non -we end up trusting that he is in a safe environment. 12 arrested for cheating people who tried to buy a second -hand car online simulated that they belonged to a well -known vehicle company and passed their customers through different departments to give that feeling. Nothing is further. “Each of the leaders worked from their home, with their mobile phones and their victims, but collaborated to simulate, for example, that some were from the Finance and other sales department, and they were passed,” they say knowledgeable sources of the investigation. Thus they created a carousel in which the victim, in addition to money, also lost control of his identity, since they appropriated the DNI data he had delivered to process the purchase and used them for the next scam. The researchers calculate the group scored with this method to 175 victims to which they caused a damage of 380,000 euros. The research remains open and new arrests or the appearance of more affected are not ruled out.
Those of the cars, published on different second -hand sales platforms, had to cause the feeling that it was a bargain. “They had sweet prices, much lower than the market currently has,” add the same sources. But they were nothing more than a mirage. The photographs belonged to other ads and had been taken without permission. “They worked like a call centerworking 24 hours a day and got to use more than 69 telephone lines with headlines throughout the country, ”explained the National Police on Monday and the Civil Guard. Once the network captured their interest, they were asked to leave those platforms to continue talking through WhatsApp, outside the security channels offered by these places of purchase online.
There are victims who paid 1,000 euros; others, 3,000 or even 4,000. The amount they claimed to the interested parties were going up if, once the first payment was made, the group believed that there was a possibility of getting more, claiming “false pretexts”, as customs expenses. One of the scammed people “made several transfers”, but others were activated the alarm signal before paying and wanted to stop the purchase. Then the threats arrived. They were told that they were going to use their data for other scams.
The human factor
“In the world cier, People think that who is going to steal their data is a hacker or that a technique is the one that causes the greatest number of cyberdelites, but in the end it is the human factor that fails. And this is a clear example of the human factor, of excess of confidence, of not wanting to lose an offer, ”explain the sources consulted.
The investigation began in November last year. The complaints came from different points and the business fraud group of the Central Cybercrime Unit of the National Police managed to group them, something that does not happen very frequently. After “an analysis work”, they reached them. “It has been a job of joining bread migues,” summarizes the sources consulted.
Six of the 12 arrested, some with a history of similar crimes, have entered provisional prison. Among those involved are the leaders of the framework and the people who were in charge of gathering the money by drawing it from the bank accounts. They are investigated for crimes of belonging to criminal organization, fraud, civil status usurpation, documentary falsehood and money laundering.
The researchers have made 13 records in the province of Madrid, mostly in Alcalá de Henares, where 73,000 euros in cash have intervened. Part of that money was saved in hidden bills in a sock. In addition, 20 televisions, high -end sound equipment and 75 mobile phones have been seized, among other effects, such as three replicas of long weapons, 3 guns airsoft (Designed to shoot non -lethal plastic projectiles) and other prohibited weapons. In addition, 81 bank accounts have blocked in the name of the main investigated.
The scams online They suppose 88% of all cybercriminality and almost 17% of all crime recorded in 2024, according to the statistics of the Ministry of Interior. In these cases, a large number of cases are included, such as the scams of love or, in which the scammer passes through a relative close to the victim to ask him to enter money because he is in an urgent situation, or the fraudulent uses of the platform of among many others.
