18 Arrested For Over 100 Nigerian Internet Scams
They contacted the victims through well-known buying and selling web portals
Victims have been located in Murcia, Alicante, Seville, Balearic Islands, Castellón, Jaén, Córdoba, Cádiz, Badajoz, A Coruña, Ciudad Real, Almería, Toledo, Madrid, Barcelona, Pontevedra, Asturias, Cáceres, Valencia, Málaga, Salamanca, Albacete, Huelva, Granada, Soria, Tenerife, La Rioja, Cantabria, León, Ourense and Zaragoza
The Civil Guard, within the framework of the REBORN II operation, has detained 18 people in Bizkaia and investigated another 13 for committing more than one hundred Nigerian Internet scams throughout the national territory.
The investigations began in November 2019, after receiving complaints from almost all the autonomous communities about scams via the internet whose alleged perpetrators resided in Bizkaia.
The modus operandi of those now detained consisted of contacting the victims through well-known buying and selling web portals, and after negotiating the purchase of an object, without haggling over the price and even offering more money for shipping costs, they agreed to the Remission of the article at the same time as the payment, the economic transaction never taking place.
Continuing with the deception, the authors, to show that the transaction was carried out, used email accounts impersonating the brand of the web portal of sale or banking entities, sending false payment confirmation emails.
Once the items were received, the network members sold them in second-hand shops, often using other people, thus making the investigation even more difficult.
In the first phase, the investigators made a collation of the common elements reported, obtaining a large number of new complaints throughout the national territory, as well as injured parties who had not yet reported the events. After that, many objects sold by those investigated were recovered, such as mobile phones, electrical appliances, video consoles, computers, etc.
Later, in a second phase, it was found that they were people living in Bizkaia and that they were using the so-called Nigerian scams to get rich. Some of these people would execute the scams with the help of members of their own family, who in turn would contact the recipients of the illicitly obtained money that was sent to Nigeria.
The Civil Guard has managed to clarify in Bizkaia more than a hundred fraud crimes committed in Murcia, Alicante, Seville, Balearic Islands, Castellón, Jaén, Córdoba, Cádiz, Badajoz, A Coruña, Ciudad Real, Almería, Toledo, Madrid, Barcelona , Pontevedra, Asturias, Cáceres, Valencia, Malaga, Salamanca, Albacete, Huelva, Granada, Soria, Tenerife, La Rioja, Cantabria, León, Ourense and Zaragoza.
The detainees have been placed at the disposal of the Court of Instruction No. 2 of those of Barakaldo (Bizkaia).
recommendations
From the Civil Guard it is recalled that before making an online transaction, you must check that the page you are visiting is secure, especially if the action involves providing sensitive data.
In addition, special care must be taken with the offers that appear on the net. Do not trust all the promotions that come to us. It is advisable to inquire before making purchases, since scammers will use these claims to collect our data and achieve their objective.
The Civil Guard has the Telematic Crimes Group channel on the web gdt.guardiacivil.es where they can report, inquire or solve telematic doubts. From there, the following safety tips are indicated, among others:
- Update the operating system regularly.
- Use an updated browser.
- Choose strong and different passwords for each Internet service.
- Regularly check the movements of your bank account.
- Use an updated, licensed antivirus and install a firewall.
- Consider using a single device for e-commerce and banking transactions (PC, Smartphone, etc.).
- Be wary of short and strange messages that you may receive on social networks, especially if they include a link to access other content.
- Don't think you are immune to malicious software because you use a certain operating system or portable device.
- Do not blindly trust installed security applications, they are not a substitute for responsible browsing or user prudence.
- If you have a wireless router to connect to the Internet, change the default passwords and set a more secure one.
For more information, you can contact the press office of the Civil Guard in Bizkaia, on the phone numbers 944 25 34 00 or 605891575.
