The Civil Guard dismantles a network dedicated to committing sentimental and CEO scams through the Internet
25 people have been arrested and 4 others investigated for the alleged crimes of fraud, criminal organization, money laundering, document falsification and identity theft
About 139 scams worth 1,332,340 euros have been detected and more than 173 national bank accounts have been investigated
The Civil Guard, within the framework of the BODEN operation, has broken up in Castellón a criminal network dedicated to committing patrimonial scams CEO type, in which they supplant the identity of another person to obtain an economic benefit, and sentimental through the Internet.
In addition, the Civil Guard has detected 18 false identities, with which they registered telephone lines and financial products necessary for the commission of the described crimes.
The operation began after the complaint filed by a representative of a well-known ceramic company in Castellón in which he informed that one of his clients, specifically a company located in Barbados (USA), had received an email with the collection data of a pending invoice with the aforementioned ceramic company, and that the US made effective by means of transfer of payment for an amount of 27,383.12 euros in the bank account provided in the email it had received.
Later they realized that they had been victims of a CEO scam, since the account provided did not correspond to the ceramic company of Castellón, so the authors, supplanting it, had sent the email in order to obtain the outstanding debt money from the Barbados company.
Throughout the investigation, the Civil Guard has been able to verify that the investigated organization, in addition to scamming companies, also carried out the so-called “sentimental scams”, in which the authors set up a false profile in social networks with the who managed to fall in love with their victims, establishing a virtual relationship with them. Once the relationship is strengthened, the scammers say they are in trouble or any other pretext to request financial help from the victim, some of whom have come to ask for several loans to meet the demands of cyber-criminals.
Most of the members of the network resided in Móstoles (Madrid), where they captured the so-called “economic mules”, who were in charge of receiving the black money from third parties, for later and after an agreed economic compensation, they bleach and returned it to the organization.
Investigators have located victims in Malta, Kenya, China, Germany, Austria, Lithuania, Switzerland, Denmark, Italy, Barbados, France, United States, Egypt, Brazil, Canada, New Zealand, Turkey, Russia, Belgium, Finland, United Kingdom , Czech Republic, Thailand, Iran, Spain, India, Jordan, Poland, Sweden, Uganda and Nigeria. Therefore, the cooperation of the police authorities of these countries has been provided, which have been channeled through INTERPOL and EUROPOL, thanks to which it has been possible to access, among other issues, the complaints presented by the injured parties.
The Civil Guard has detected around 139 scams worth 1,332,340 euros and that the organization would have committed between 2010 and 2019, although today the investigators continue to receive new complaints of more harmed, provided by law enforcement authorities from different countries.
More than 173 bank accounts of national banks have been investigated, used by the now disjointed network to transfer money obtained from scams among its members, thus complicating the work of researchers in monitoring the traceability of money.
In the records carried out in the localities of Valmojado and Casarrubios del Monte, money, computer equipment, telephony and storage devices have been intervened, which after analyzing them, a large number of documents and computer programs used to commit the scams have been located .
The operation, directed by the Court of Instruction No. 1 of Toledo, has been carried out by agents belonging to the Computer and Telematic Crime Team (EDITE) of the Civil Guard Command of Castellón, who have had the collaboration of agents of the USECIC of the Toledo Civil Guard Command, Main Post of Valmojado (Toledo), Judicial Police Team of Pinto (Madrid), Judicial Police Team of Las Rozas (Madrid) and Technical Unit of Judicial Police.
From the Civil Guard it is recommended, in order to avoid possible CEO scams, that upon receipt of notifications in which the pattern of payment and collection invoices is modified, the final supplier is contrasted.
For more information you can contact the Peripheral Office of Communication of the Civil Guard, at 964.22.46.00, ext. 241 or 628.140.650.
