The National Police has arrested eight people as members of a criminal organization in Seville and Mijas, by assumptions scams restrained by means of the technique known as “phishing”, consisting of obtain the personal data of the victims through the sending of mass emails or SMS messages, simulating being a banking entity to get the keys and access the accounts.
After obtaining the personal data of their victims, they used another technique, called “sim swapping”, by which they got a duplicate of the SIM card of the telephone line associated with the victim’s bank account, they have explained from the National Police in a statement.
These previous operations carried out by the members of this criminal organization allowed to register recharge credit cards associated with the accounts of the victims in the banking entity they supplanted. The cards were recharged through transfers from the account of the injured person.
The last step of this scam consisted of the withdrawal from the ATM of the victim’s money, as well as diverting part to other third-party accounts or investing it in cryptocurrencies, with the consequent difficulty in tracking the money. This criminal organization swindled more than 240,000 euros from the victims.
The researchcarried out by the Provincial Judicial Police Brigade of Seville (UDEF) culminated on March 22 with a device in which the arrests of eight of its members were carried out, as well as the entry and search of three homes of the towns of Santiponce and Guillena in the province of Seville and that of Mijas, counting for the latter record with the support of the Judicial Police group of the Fuengirola National Police Station
in homes high-end mobile phones, laptops, narcotic substances were seized and other incriminating documentation. The investigation is still open and it is not ruled out that the amount of money swindled will increase, as well as the number of victims and those investigated.
The eight detainees are charged with the crimes of belonging to a criminal organization, fraud, usurpation of civil status and money launderingand passed to the disposition of the Court of Instruction number eleven of Seville.