It placed advertisements on well-known web platforms to sell different objects at prices below market prices to attract buyers, who paid in advance and never received what was demanded.
The Civil Guard in La Rioja, within the framework of the ‘Alfatrach’ operation, investigated a 21-year-old man, a native of Morocco and a resident of the Rioja town of Alfaro, as the alleged perpetrator of 27 crimes of fraud perpetrated through the Internet in several provinces, including Murcia. This individual has a criminal record and extensive experience in committing scams through the network. The operation began in January 2021, after the filing of several complaints at the Alfaro Civil Guard Post, in which the injured parties stated that they had been scammed during the purchase of different items advertised on well-known internet sales portals.
Agents from Edite and the ‘Equipo@’ belonging to the UOPJ of the Civil Guard in La Rioja, specialized in cybercrime investigations, in collaboration with agents from the Alfaro Post, analyzed the documentation provided in the complaints, verifying how the author of the scams began their criminal activity by inserting advertisements on well-known Internet platforms to sell smartwatches, game consoles, Thermomix, vehicle tires, etc., at prices well below market prices to quickly attract the attention of potential buyers.
When the victims were interested in the items offered, the scammer gave them a false sense of reliability and trust, convincing them to make the payment in advance through different methods -Bizum, transfers, etc.-. Once the payment materialized, the scammer did not send the items and did not attend to the requests of the buyers.
As the proceedings progressed, it was found that the scammer used a total of six bank accounts and four mobile phone lines to carry out his criminal activity. In addition, it was found that the bank accounts had received transfers amounting to 6,000 euros, from different frauds reported at the national level, and that the money had been withdrawn in person at branches and ATMs in La Rioja.
Once the scammer had been identified, ‘Equipo@’ agents established a search device, which culminated in his location and investigation as the alleged perpetrator of 27 fraud crimes perpetrated in 18 Spanish provinces: A Coruña (1), Badajoz (1), Burgos (1), Cantabria (1), Ciudad Real (1), Granada (1), Huelva (1), La Rioja (4), Lugo (1), Madrid (1), Malaga (1), Murcia (1 ), Navarra (2), Pontevedra (2), Salamanca (1), Seville (2), Valencia (4), Zaragoza (1). The proceedings were put at the disposal of the judicial authority.
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