A worrying phenomenon
Although there is a rule that regulates unwanted calls, if it does not work as expected, you must be especially careful with certain offers that, through this type of call, can arrive. An example can be found in Gavà (Barcelona) where the Mossos d’Esquadra have just arrested a 22- and 31-year-old couple on charges of ongoing fraud. what were they doing They impersonated employees of supply companies or banking entities to offer certain services, obtain bank details and perpetrate the scams. It is estimated that they could have received up to 250,000 euros.
Investigation and arrest
The investigation began in March 2023 following two fraud complaints filed by the same person at the Gavà police station. The perpetrators of the scams, via telephone and a few months apart, had posed as an alleged employee of an electricity company and an employee of a financial institution and had managed to deceive their victim, who made two repayments to the bank accounts indicated by the interlocutors. It should be mentioned that the perpetrators had the victim’s personal information, which is why they had not raised any suspicions when they carried out the scam. The procedures carried out by the investigators made it possible to identify the holders of the accounts where the fraudulent transfers had been made. The agents managed to find out that the main investigated had previously worked in a telemarketing company, which is why he had access to personal data of the customers of this company and that he had used it illegitimately to convince his victims in the story used . However, the investigators were certain that the principal investigated in collusion with the arrested woman, who also interacted directly with the victims, had made this mechanism a continuous criminal activity over time and that they had recruited a group of people, holders of receiving bank accounts, necessary for the consummation of the crime. These people, with the exception of an agreed amount, delivered the money to the final recipient, the principal investigated. The agents managed to identify a total of 26 people holding these accounts.
Expansion of scams
The agents located a total of 31 denunciations of fraud, since March 2023, with a total of more than 254,000 euros defrauded, throughout the Catalan territory, directly related to the main suspects. Their modus operandi was always the same, via telephone and through deception, they pretended to be employees of service companies, banking institutions or justice officials, with the aim of fraudulently obtaining money with bank transfers to receiving bank accounts. The victims did not suspect the deception until it was too late since the authors of the scams had personal data and gave them reliability. Likewise, the agents found out that the investigated had the need to constantly stock up on prepaid telephone cards, which they later associated with mobile terminals and which, in order to disturb the police investigation, ended up replacing them with new ones.
Cheating till the end
The two main investigators, who knew that these scams were being investigated, repeated the calls to the victims and presented themselves in the name of lawyers, prosecutors or any other legal figure, in order to confuse the victims and thus again achieve an illegal transfer . On May 8, under the tutelage of the Barcelona Magistrate’s Court, an entry and search was carried out at the home of those under investigation. As part of the search, the agents collected numerous clues related to the investigation such as 18 prepaid phone cards from different companies. However, they managed to recover three mobile phones that they had thrown out of the window in an attempt to get rid of them moments before the search. Finally, the investigators arrested the man and the woman as alleged perpetrators of a continuing crime of fraud.
