Costa News Spain Breaking News | English News in Spain.
A CYBERSCAM that netted €1.9 million has been busted by the Policia Nacional with 760 victims conned via bogus bank text messages.
Dozens of arrests were made and all have been remanded to custody.
The gang, based in Sabadell (Barcelona Province), sent 1,000 text messages per minute to potential targets.
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The Policia Nacional said the sophisticated operation included 660 people who acted as ‘mules’ to make ATM withdrawals from hijacked accounts in return for a fee.
The ‘mules’ were recruited by ‘droppers’ who received up to €100 per new ‘mule’ and also a commission based on profits made ranging between 5% and 10%.
Police analysed 700 telephone lines and 2,455 mobiles phones, as well as 3,000 bank accounts, 86 email addresses, and more than 3,000 bank account used by the gang during an operation that began in January of 2023.
Many victims from the Sabadell district complained, prompting an investigation.
The computer program created a list with potential victims and sent them multiple text messages to alert them to the fact that their bank accounts were blocked. They then had to visit a specific link.
The screen then displayed a fake website of a bank, and the fraudsters were able to access accounts by entering their passwords.
The gang then called the victims by phone, posing as the bank manager, to ask for the double verification codes with which they could make transfers, bizums or ATM via their ‘mules’- main Catalunya residents.
The money was then transferred to multiple accounts to avoid being tracked and finally converted to cash or cryptocurrency.
According to the Policia Nacional, the criminals also scammed some of its victims through the ‘son in distress’ system, where victims called a parent pretending to be their son to ask them for money.
