In Granada
The National Police detains two fraudsters specialized in the commission of fraud through mobile payment gateways
The detainees, a 26-year-old woman and a 32-year-old man, posed as employees of banks, Social Security or the Tax Agency to deceive their victims
The amount defrauded, until April of this year, exceeds 30,000 euros and the victims affected are more than 100 people
The investigation was initiated thanks to citizen collaboration through www.policia.es/colabora.php, which allows contact with specialized units of the National Police to report facts or situations that could initiate investigations into allegedly criminal acts
05-June-2019.- National Police agents have arrested in Granada to two frauds specialized in the commission of fraud through mobile payment gateways. The detainees, a 26-year-old woman and a 32-year-old man, posed as employees of banking entities, Social Security or the Tax Agency to deceive their victims. The amount defrauded exceeds 30,000 euros and the victims affected are more than 100 people. The agents had knowledge of the facts thanks to the citizen collaboration through www.policia.es/colabora.php, which allows contacting specialized units of the National Police to report facts or situations that could initiate investigations into allegedly criminal acts.
The investigation began in the month of January of this year after receiving a multitude of emails through www.policia.es/colabora.php. This website offers citizens the possibility of contacting specialized units of the National Police to consult or report criminal acts, including those committed through telecommunications.
Modus operandi
The detainees obtained the telephone numbers of the victims through the internet (forums, portals, etc.). Later, they called pretending to be employees of banks, Social Security or the Tax Agency, and told them that they were going to make a pending payment, either for a Social Security refund, a tax return from the Treasury, or for dividends from your savings.
After convincing and deceiving their victims they indicated the procedure to follow, which consisted in downloading and installing on their mobile devices some of the applications that function as payment gateways by associating the phone number of said mobile phone with a bank account number.
Then, instead of sending a deposit request through the payment platform, with the amount they had indicated by phone, they sent a request for payment. However, since the victims had already been warned that they would receive a message at their terminals, and had received indications that they should only accept the "payment", they ignored the content of the message indicating that this amount was to be paid to the authors of the petition, instead of received.
Fraud of 30,000 euros to 100 different people
Analyzed the account numbers used by the authors, as well as the transfers made by the victims, the researchers counted a fraud that amounted to 30,000 euros. In addition, they determined that the scam would have affected, approximately, 100 different people. These figures only take into account the facts committed up to mid-April of this year, date in which the authors were arrested.
Despite the arrest, investigators continue to receive emails from victims who are suffering from this same fraud with the same modus operandi, a fact that has been brought to the attention of the investigating court. Also, agents continue to make efforts to determine if the perpetrators are committing the fraud with a more refined method, hiding their identities or making use of fictitious identities so that it is not easy to reach them and collaborating with third parties that may be making mules. They have also learned that there are friends of the detainees who have begun to commit fraud with the same modus operandi.