The detainees created fraudulent websites and advertisements that served as a claim and charged the products for Bizum
The Civil Guard dismantled a criminal organization that, taking advantage of ‘Black Friday’, defrauded 160 people from all over the country, including the Region of Murcia. In total, they made a profit of 240,000 euros. Within the framework of the ‘Electronicplay’ operation, the agents arrested ten people in Colmenarejo (Madrid), who created fraudulent websites in which they allegedly sold electronic material that the victims never received.
Those arrested are accused of an alleged crime of belonging to a criminal group, money laundering, fraud and usurpation of marital status. The organization began its criminal activity in November 2021, the dates of ‘Black Friday’, to advertise electronic material, to a greater extent PlayStation consoles, at a much lower price than usual in the legal market.
The victims, believing that they were facing a lawful sale, both because of the appearance of the website and because of the advertising they had found promoting it and the customer service telephone numbers that appeared, made the payment through a bank transfer or through Bizum . The injured parties, by not receiving the purchased product and not obtaining a response from a customer service service that did not exist at that time, informed the Civil Guard of the facts that were the subject of the investigation.
Fraudulent websites and advertisements
The investigations confirmed that the criminal network created fraudulent websites and advertisements that served as a claim, in addition to registering telephone lines linked to bank accounts. In these accounts, they appeared as integral holders used as ‘mules’, who, in exchange for percentages and commissions, opened bank accounts, telephone lines and created virtual purses through cryptocurrency platforms in order to make it difficult to trace the scammed money.
The exhaustive police investigation revealed that the criminal plot affected various provinces, so the agents began to review coincidences related to these events and gradually pull the thread of the complaints filed, as well as the analysis of the bank accounts associated with the suspected scams and fraudulent websites.
The indications and different evidence obtained by the Civil Guard reflected the identity of the members of the plot. In the first place, it was possible to determine several of the members that made up this network until they finally found their leaders.
final operative
On April 8, a joint operation was carried out for the practice of arrests in different municipalities of the Community of Madrid, which ended with a house search in Colmenarejo, in which mobile devices, several Wi-Fi routers, telephone cards and computer equipment were seized. and the dismantling of the criminal group, intervening more than 20 bank accounts linked to the plot.
As a result, ten people between the ages of 20 and 49 were arrested. Most of its members, after taking a demonstration, were released pending judicial appeal. For his part, the leader of this network was arrested and placed at the disposal of the Court of Instruction No. 2 of Villajoyosa, who ordered his entry into prison.
This operation was carried out by teams from the Civil Guard commands of the Region of Murcia, Alicante and Valencia, with the collaboration of teams from practically the entire national territory, mainly in the search for victims of the now dismantled plot. During the exploitation phase, carried out in the Madrid municipalities of Colmenarejo and Rivas Vaciamadrid, it had the support of the Citizen Security Unit (USECIC) of the Tres Cantos Command (Madrid).
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