Alejandro's (assumed name) phone received an SMS. “Dad, it's me, click here, my phone is giving me problems.” The indicated link led directly to an account on the WhatsApp instant messaging application on an unknown line, through which Alejandro communicated with who he believed was his son. “Sorry, I feel really bad, but I'm very overwhelmed,” the relative continued, “my computer has broken and I need it urgently for a university project. And, furthermore, the bank application does not work for me. Can you send me money to this account?” Alejandro sent up to 55,000 euros in successive deliveries. His alleged son was, in reality, one of the members of a criminal network made up of 102 people who have been arrested in various Civil Guard operations, carried out between February and April, between the provinces of Alicante, Barcelona, Girona, Madrid, Malaga and Valencia. All of them are charged with the crimes of fraud, money laundering and belonging to a criminal organization, committed against at least 238 victims, from the province of Alicante alone, from whom they have taken more than 850,000 euros in total. An Investigative Court in Torrevieja (Alicante) has taken charge of the proceedings.
The complaints began to arrive from Alicante in mid-2022, one of the stages “in which a large volume of this type of scam occurred,” says First Corporal Javier Herrero, head of the Alicante Team, specialized in cybercrimes. , who led the investigation. At that time, the fraudulent contacts “were viral, like a pandemic,” he recalls, which spread throughout Spain. All the complaints told a similar case. Someone was posing as a family member in need who was having connection problems with his home phone and who needed money immediately. The conversations, according to Civil Guard sources, began with an intimate and personal greeting that “created an instant emotional connection.” The members of the plot made sure that those affected had an emancipated child, traveling or studying far from home, so in the face of their economic difficulties they reacted with the logical instinct of parental protection.
Once attention was captured, the same sources continue, the fictional story arrived. Generally, it started with phone problems, to justify that an unknown number was being used. “If they asked them to speak directly with them, they said that the camera or microphone on their device did not work,” indicates the Civil Guard officer. And he continued with a pressing problem that could be solved by paying a variable amount of money. The fictitious children added that it was also impossible for them to access their bank account, so they requested an urgent transfer to another account. The scammers had “such power of conviction,” say the investigators, that they managed to get the victims to transfer them minimum shipments of 800 euros. “We have seen cases in which the scammed people sent up to 26,000 euros in one fell swoop,” declares the researcher.
The instructions provided to the victims were clear. After long conversations, in one of the messages they detailed the number of the fraudulent account and even the concept they should put. The money came directly into their possession, through non-returnable transfers that could not be cancelled. When the victim offered resistance, they turned to Bizum, “where they could get smaller amounts,” due to the restrictions of this application, says Herrero. But they didn't stop there. With the family member well hooked, they tried to repeat the money remittances as many times as possible. In this way, they managed to defraud several of the complainants of up to 55,000 euros.
The Alicante Team took charge of the operation, called Hiwaso. The investigation managed to locate more than 500 accounts in different banking entities and more than a hundred telephone lines that were registered with false identities. The suspects, who as the operation progressed were discovered to be operating from different parts of Spain, also laundered the money received with payments in stores and cash withdrawals from ATMs. “This type of criminal network does not have great structural complexity,” says Herrero. The organizers “are based outside of Spain” and are “the ones who recruit the victims, send the messages and launder the money.” But they need a team of people, made up of approximately 90% of the detainees, who “let them use their bank accounts to send remittances, in exchange for a percentage or a fixed base, which could reach up to 400 euros per shipment, depending on the amount received.” The Málaga-Granada and Barcelona-Girona axes were the main nuclei of the plot.
The operation was of such magnitude that the arrests had to be addressed in different phases, explain the sources consulted. Last February, 12 people were arrested in Granada and 29 in Malaga. A month later, two more people fell in Alicante, three in Valencia and 13 in Madrid. At the end of this month, 35 more people have been arrested in Barcelona and eight in Girona. The alleged scammers are 74 men and 28 women between the ages of 20 and 60, owners of the accounts to which the swindled money arrived. All of them have been released after giving a statement before the Civil Guard, pending the ruling of the judicial authority.
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