Website fraudster arrested

The Guardia Civil, within the framework of the “ZENIGATA” operation, arrested a person who was engaged in fraud from a well-known online sales platform. The detainee had been fleeing from justice for more than a decade, he is attributed the alleged crimes of fraud and usurpation of civil status, money laundering and against industrial property.

In the operation, it has been possible to identify 233 people throughout the national territory, as well as 61 people and 7 companies whose identity had been supplanted and who had been scammed, and more than 180 bank accounts used to divert the money have been located. It is estimated that the author could have defrauded more than 55,000 euro.

The operation began in January of last year, when the Guardia Civil received a complaint from a person in Bizkaia, where he stated that he had been the victim of an alleged scam, by purchasing a video game console over the Internet and never receiving the product.

For this reason, the agents began an investigation where they were able to verify how a person was offering products through fraudulent web pages simulating the name and logo of real businesses.

Continuing with the investigations, the Guardia Civil was able to verify that this person was using bank accounts in the name of third parties without their consent and thus receive the money from the sales. Likewise, it was possible to find out that he had several telephone numbers to receive payments through a well-known instant telephone payment application.

With all these indications, the agents managed to locate the author’s home as well as a storage room a few kilometres from his home, where it was suspected that he hid all the necessary infrastructure to carry out the scams in the province of Alicante.

From the searches carried out, the agents found multiple bank cards, mobile phones for cash withdrawals, and packages of purchases made by the detainee, all in the name of people whose identity he had impersonated.

Likewise, a system made up of four mobile phones connected to the same network was found in the storage room, through which he could manage the incoming money from scams and quickly move it to different accounts to hide his trail.

It should be noted that the detainee had made a special effort to evade police and judicial action since he took different security measures to avoid being located, such as making his usual payments with cards in the name of other people or not appearing as the holder of no contract or supply.

The scammer opened an online business on the Internet by copying the name and details of a real store. It lured its victims with slightly lower prices than other businesses. When customers did not receive the product, the author informed them that in order to refund the money for purchase insurance, the buyer had to provide a photograph of their ID on both sides.

The people who agreed to send the documentation were not only scammed but their data was used to activate bank accounts and mobile phones to continue scamming.

It should be noted that the author, who had more than 15 years of experience in carrying out scams, was so fixated that he even used the identity of his ex-partner to deceive and obtain account numbers and mobile phone lines.

Tips

• When buying online make sure that the website is legitimate. Don’t rely on remarkably low prices. Don’t settle for an address, phone number or reviews from other buyers as these are easily falsified items.
• At the slightest suspicion, look for the name of the store on the Internet, reviews on trusted sites or comments on forums. All precaution is little.
• If you have been scammed, you should report it even if the amount is not high. Criminals run numerous small scams to accumulate large amounts.

The investigation is still open, to identify other victims, so if you have been the victim of a scam with similar characteristics, you must inform the authorities as soon as possible.

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