Agents of the Civil Guard of Cáceres, belonging to the Technological Investigation Team have dismantled a criminal organization specialized in business and sentimental cybrestals. In total they have arrested 15 people for the alleged crimes of fraud, usurpation of civil status ,. According to investigations, the chefed economic amount, both individuals and companies could amount to about € 1,600,000.
The detainees intercepted communications between companies and made the so -called “fraud of love” to obtain money from individuals through emotional deceptions. The investigation began in 2023, after the complaint made before the Civil Guard of Cáceres, by a woman who had scammed more than 100,000 euros. The woman reported that for months she had been talking with an assumption official of the American army who won her trust and began to ask for money.
During the investigation, the agents discovered the existence of a criminal organization whose members were dedicated to intercepting emails between companies, prior infection of their computer equipment, to then be able to undertake a cyber attack that managed to divert the money of invoices that these companies paid others for their services. Complaints have been filed for this reason in Madrid, Barcelona and Seville.
It has also been found that the organization carried out computer attacks both companies and individuals who thought they had made a payment correctly. In this way, the researchers discovered that the detainees used the identity of the victims themselves to make other scams nationwide. The Civil Guard ensures that currently some of the victims continue to pay the bank loan they requested and whose amount they delivered to the scammers, which reflects, according to the agents, the strong emotional link that they came to develop with them.
During the records, a large amount of bank documentation of entities based abroad, 52 latest generation mobile phones, 20 external storage devices and 18 laptops.
The cybercriminal organization, whose members continuously changed home to hinder its police location, was composed of fifteen people, all of which have been arrested for the alleged crimes of scam, usurpation of marital status, money laundering and belonging to criminal organization.
One of the detainees also consisted of numerous police records for scams, as well as several judicial search and detention requisitions issued by courts of different provinces.
